Zahid: Don’t treat teacher's comment as threatening education system

Comments by vocal primary school teacher Mohd Fadli Salleh on the school syllabus and heavy school bags should not be considered a threat to the national education system, said Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. 

Zahid said issues raised by the Mathematics teacher, better known as Cikgu Fadli to his over 600,000 followers on Facebook, should instead be seen as valuable feedback to better the education system.

“In this context, the reality of time and realisticity must be present. 

“As Cikgu Fadli said, don’t just compare the syllabus with other developed countries and eras. 

“You must also make comparisons with the aspects of facilities, teaching time, and facilities,” he said in a statement today. 

This comes after Fadli, a primary school teacher in Gombak, said that he feared a dismissal or demotion for stating that the primary school Mathematics syllabus was of too high a standard and inappropriate for pupils.

Fadli said there were also too many pupils in the class and the children had too many subjects to study.

He highlighted the issue of children carrying heavy school bags as well, saying that this was harmful to the pupils.

Elaborating on the matter, Zahid warned against being too obsessed with emulating the education system from other countries when those nations would change their approach to one that’s more effective.

“Not to mention foreign models which emphasise the need for facilities, teaching time, and facilities to give the best to all students.

“We must take into consideration the issue of education in rural areas. For example, in Sabah and Sarawak, the indigenous people in the peninsula, and those in the suburbs who find it difficult to get satisfactory internet access,” Zahid said.

In a wider context, the incumbent Bagan Datuk MP said, the decentralisation of education is very important for schools to adapt their learning and teaching plans to changes at the national level. 

Therefore, he suggested for the country to implement the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) method to replace an overly centralised approach.

“It aims to build flexibility and facilitate any changes in accordance to the local context in terms of learning and teaching plans in schools.”

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