ON EDUCATION ISSUES

The 3rd Sabah Teachers' Conference held in our institute went off well. better than expected. When PROVISI Education representative, Mrs K. Rivai approached me on organising a joint-venture conference here in Keningau, I was at first a bit apprehensive on how response would be. In the past, these conferences were usually paid for by the ministry. Would teachers be willing to fork out the money from their own pockets to attend the conference? I decided to take the plunge. We went on a publicity blitz and the response had been overwhelming. Over 300 people signed up for the conference, one third from our own students and lecturers.

After the sessions, was an open forum. Teachers had so many questions to ask regarding current classroom practices, issues on discipline, classroom management. We had to limit the question time due to time factor. In my closing speech, I lauded the teachers for transforming their mindsets, the challenge ahead... etc.... bla...bla...bla. The current catch phrase is "Transformation"

The Q and A draw much response. here the panel answering questions.

Lunch with the conference speakers - Pak Romy Chadyadi from Jakarta ( also the CEO of Provisi Education), Katryn Rivai, director of Seri Insan School and the co-orgainser, yours truly, Datin Amy Stanlilaus Yee, director of Datuk Simon Fung schools, Siti Aisah, excellent principal of Keningau Technical School and Baharom Md Nor, the deputy director of our institute.

The conference enabled me to compare the education system of Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysis's highly centralised, whereas, Indonesia, due to its vastness and huge population, has to decentralise. Both of us were concerned on the over emphasis on academic achievements at the expense of skills based education for we know that the majority of the students will not find meaningful employment even after tertiary education. How about a conference addressing such issues?

Credit goes to the organising committee Mr. Vijay Gopal, the head of department of our Research and Development unit and Pn. Katryn Rivai.