Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan has proposed that entrepreneurship be made a separate subject in secondary schools at the expense of reducing geography, but the teachers’ union is against it.

 

The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) told Malaysiakini that cutting the time of other subjects in schools just to place emphasis another is not the right move.

 

“This proposal (by the deputy minister) would certainly upset teachers who are presently teaching geography in secondary schools,” says NUTP president Hashim Adnan ( left ).

 

Instead, he urged for the scope of entrepreneurship topic to be expanded, within the existing curriculum.

 

“Entrepreneurship is also part of the Living Skills curriculum which is taught in secondary schools.

 

“Rather than reduce the time for geography, why not enhance the entrepreneurship curriculum in the Living Skills subject to help improve the business acumen of the students further,” he said.

 

‘Enhance current entrepreneurship content’

 

Hashim said he is not proposing those teaching the Living Skills subject be given more time or burden, on top of giving priority on entrepreneurship.

 

He is only proposing the present content to be enhanced and emphasised to include more business acumen skills.

 

It is not right to ask for the teaching time for any subject to be reduced in favour of another because students have to take exams for all subjects.

 

Hence, he said it is not right to call for a reduction in time of other subjects including geography.

 

Hashim was commenting on the deputy minister’s proposal to cut the time for Geography and that Entrepreneurship subject be taught in secondary schools from Form 1 to Form 5.

 

The deputy finance minister noted that Chinese children have better business acumen compared to their Malay counterparts even though the subject is not taught in schools.

 

According to him, Chinese students master the skills when they help their parents in grocery shops or company offices, while Malay children shoot birds with a slingshot, or bathe in waterfalls and drains.

 

Ahmad ( right ), in suggesting an improvement, had proposed that the time for Geography be cut down and for entrepreneurship to be introduced as a specific subject.

 

While the deputy minister said he had nothing against Geography, he said there was nothing much to learn except to be able to identify countries on the world map.

 

“What else is there to learn in geography?" Ahmad asked at a press conference recently.

 

He claimed that his proposal to have Entrepreneurship as a subject received positive response from Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.