华人何必为难华小生？

小编：曾经有家长这样形容现今华小三种语文的课程，那就是要求每位华小生的华文程度要媲美中国小孩，马来文程度追赶国小生，，英文程度和英国人一样。
结果是，我们孩子不但三语都掌握不好，连自己籍贯的方言也丢弃，成了四不像。
问题出在哪？我没有答案。但请你们好好看了这三年级华文考卷后，想象自己当年9岁时候，是否有能力应付这样的考卷。

Dear YB Dr Teo Nie Ching ,
敬爱张念群 副教育部长：

Hope this posting finds you well.
首先祝愿您平安！ 

I have a funny thought: Does a person really need a good command of Chinese Language in order to become the Deputy Minister of Education? Or does a person really need to score a very good Chinese Exam result in his SPM in order to be appointed the Minister of Finance??
我有个奇怪的想法：是否我们需要精通华语才可以做副教育部长，或在 SPM 的华文获得优异的成绩才能成为财政部长呢？

I feel obligated to write to you as I hope that this letter of appeal would serve a purpose to help the Chinese School pupils learning Mandarin, regardless of their races, on the whole.
这是一封诉求的信，希望它能帮助到在华校学习华语的学子们---- 不管他们来自任何家庭背景或种族。

Undoubtedly in recent years, the levels of primary school Chinese subject has been intentionally made extremely high and “unmanageable” by many pupils. As if we are setting an unchievable objective by pushing ourselves towards comparing our standards with those of China and Taiwan!
近年来，本地的华文的水准越来越难了。感觉上，它是在故意为难学生。我们似乎要和中国与台湾的华文水品比较高低！

I was even more worried ever since HOT system was introduced and enforced as we all know that every new implementation would have a lot of flaws. Does it actually serve a noble purpose in uniting the nation? Or merely to be designed in a way to show (off ) that our educational system to look like of very high standard, even at primary school levels? Our nightmares have turned to be true!
高级思维课程一推出时，我们更惊慌。通常新的政策肯定会有不少的弊病。它能真正地去团结国民吗？或只是策划出来向外界炫耀我们用有高人一等等教育制度？甚至在小学时，我们已高人一等？其实，我们的噩梦就在那时候开始了！ 



I taught Mandarin in Chinese schools for 5 years plus before switching to teaching English in the private sector. When in secondary school and pre-u, I spent most of my time studying Chinese subject. With a relatively good foundation in Mandarin , I later on realised that I had passed up too many opportunities in mastering other subjects well, especially English as the most important international language. And today, while having to focus and put in so much effort in learning such difficult Mandarin even at primary levels, our pitiful pupils are just following the mistakes I once made.
在未转去教英语前，我教了五年的华文。在中学与大学先修班时，我就是因为太过注重华文，而失去了很多掌握其他科目的机会，特别是我的英语更是一团糟！今天，为了应付这么艰难的华文，孩子肯定也会失去很多时间去学习与掌握其他科目及语言。这就是重蹈复辙我当年的后尘！

As we are all aware, in the context of Malaysia with its multi-racial backgrounds, children need to learn and master the basic of several languages since primary school, besides being burdened with other HOTS subjects. Therefore, the time allocation for each and every subject is very limited. Hence when a language is made extra-ordinary difficult in the exams, it will scare others from learning it, or to sit for it in the exam.
Many, many secondary school students, during my time, dropped Chinese subject, because they were afraid not to score it well and it would affect their overall results on the whole.
众 所 周 知， 马来西亚是个多元种族的国家。除了必须规定性地应付高级思维科目之外，孩子们自小必须学习多种语言。所以，学习每一科目的时间，真的很有限。所以当一个科目被复杂化时，它会吓跑很多人！比如很多中学生就放弃学习与选考中文！



Please do not tell me that the results are not important. When a student applies for a scholarship or university entry, usually the good grade of the students --- those passing the exams with flying colours ---- will be the first priority in its considearation.
原因在哪儿呢？有些人说别太注重成绩，其实是非常错误的观念。万一某一科考不好，真的会影响他们申请助学金 或升上大学的机会！

Back to the point of discussion. Look at the attached exam papers. Apparently its standard is far too high for a Primary 3 pupil to manage!!! It''s as difficult as the previous papers for Standard 5 or Standard 6 pupils! I dare to challenge anyone that many secondary students will also not be able to answer this paper well! I could even compare its standard to SPR or PMR many, many years ago.
再讨论重点吧。请看看我附上的考卷，瞎眼的都会发觉它对一个才三年级的孩子来说，的的确确是太难了！我敢挑战一些人 ---- 甚至很多中学生都未必可以答得好。

When the pupils from Chinese backgrounds are struggling to cope with it, let alone the pupils from non-Chinese speaking backgrounds!! It is killing !
A secondary school teacher remarked, “We are treating the children like the guinea pigs. Worse, they are treated like the DEAD guinea pigs!”
若华校生本身都无法应付这么深奥的考题，请问非华裔能够胜任吗？简直就是“谋杀”！
一位资深的中学老师说：“我们好像把学生当成白老鼠。更糟的是---当成白老鼠里的死老鼠！”

What is the purpose of learning a language? Fundamentally it is for communication purpose! And communication should be made easy and understandable ! And a language should be spoken! Therefore, we should just let primary school pupils learn the crisps of the language. Make it easy, make it more commonly accepted, make it a friendly language where everyone has the intention and love towards learning and embracing it! When more people speak the language, regardless of their races, only then would it be more commonly used, and would we achieve our objective in promoting Mandarin nationally, and internationally!
为什么要学一种语言呢？基本上语言就是用来简易地沟通。以及，语文必须用在口语交谈上！因此，我们应该让孩子们学习简易的语文，让它通用，让它广泛地被使用。不管任何族群，让他们爱上及拥抱这基础语文的学习！当大家都说华语时，我们才能真正的广泛地提倡华语运动呀！

Speciallisation in the language can be made in at secondary schools, or at a higher level. At a much mature age, the students will be given a choice or freedom to pursue the language further (or not) based on their personal interest. I would never understand why we need to force things down the throat at primary school levels, as if to deliberately forcing them to obtain a PhD in Mandarin!!
若要深入地研究一种语言，上到中学或高等学府时也是不迟的！当学生的思维更成熟时，他们会选择继续探讨研究语文学与否，胥视个人的兴趣了。可是，目前的情形，却似乎在揠苗助长，甚至希望孩子能在小学就考到一张博士文凭更好！！



Why on earth do we need to set a very, very high standard of Manadrin at Primary School levels, intentionally scaring the pupils away, and leaving those snobbish and “a stick-in-the mud” sort of teachers clapping their hands, giggling happily on their own for failing the pupils ?
真不明白为什么我们需要故意为难学生，特别是把华文弄得这么难，让后那些自命清高的老师会拍拍手，很开心学生们都达不到他们的水准？

Sigh! As a matter of fact, to tackle this issue, we really, really need more in-depth discussions by more down to earth educationists who are more understanding and genuine.
唉！如果要彻底解决这问题，我们真的需要更有理智，更明白事理的真正懂得教育理念的教育者去深入研究这个问题！

I used to write in about how pathetic the situation and the issue is by giving a few examples of the papers and texts for different aged-groups back in 2017. We received an overwhelming feed backs from most of the teachers here who unanimously sent in their grievences, and tears! But it was last year.... It goes without saying, we never had hope on the previous MOE! ... But now with our new MOE, the ball is with you now. We have high hope on you!
去年，我曾针对某高年级的特别艰奥的试卷与内容做了基础的探讨，得到了很多老师热诚的回响。但是，我们对过去的教育部无法寄予任何希望。但是，今天的教育部是崭新的。我们对您寄予众望！




The pledge I am highlighting today is only an iceberg. Definitely there would be more issues about it.
I would appeal to you over and over again to kindly see into this matter. I hope that you and your team in the new MOE will do something about it. With your wisdom, we know you can rectify the situation!
今天讨论的问题，应该只是冰山一角。肯定背后会有更多问题的。
请接受我一再的请求，希望您正视这课题。诚然，您与新的教育前锋 绝对会用最有智慧的能力与 方式来处理这件事情！

We really need an entire revamp in our educational system, don’t we?
我们需要教育制度的改革，不是吗？

Respectfully,
Alfred Koh (MAPSE) 敬上