Entering exam season, parents fear haze is taking a toll on children’s studies

With the haze keeping students out of classes, teachers have been forced to step up the pace of lessons, even speeding through the syllabi and dumping extra homework on students to keep up with the school year, Malacca Action Group for Parents in Education (MAGPIE) chairman Mak Chee Kin said.

“Now as it is, they’re preparing for PT3 and SPM and the teachers, some are giving extra classes on Saturdays to keep up,” he toldMalay Mail Online in a phone interview, referring to the national evaluation examination for 15-year-olds and the Form Five school leaving examination.

“They’re chasing the syllabus to finish but then the ministry said close the school, it’s stressful for the students too,” he added, referring to teachers in the Malacca school where he heads the parent-teacher association.

Parents Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Rahim added that the instance of schools having to shut down due to the haze was nothing new, and neither was teachers forgoing finishing the school syllabi if they couldn’t keep up.

“What happens on occasions like this is teachers will cram or they don’t finish syllabus. Before when there were haze, teachers didn’t finish syllabus. Kids either went to exams without knowing the full syllabus or they studied on their own,” she told Malay Mail Online in a phone interview.

At times like these, parents needed to take the initiative to ensure that teachers followed through on their children’s studies, she said, adding that some teachers had a “very lackadaisical” attitude towards education.

“But that shouldn’t be how it is. It should be proper, parents should know when syllabus finishes and if not, what is the solution. As in the culture of many schools here, parents don’t speak up. They don’t want to ruffle feathers,” she added.

However, parental involvement did not negate the fact that students were still forced to take home more homework than they usually would prior to school cancellations, another parent group pointed out.

“I can see the homework more or less double everytime there is a holiday or cancellation of school. It’s a shame but what can we do about it?” Concerned Parents of Selangor coordinator Shamsuddin Hamid told Malay Mail Online, voicing his frustration.

“I tell my kids, ‘do what you can’. I don’t believe in pressuring them to burn the midnight oil or to wake up at 4am to do homework,” he said.Shamsuddin added that parents have been backed into a corner with few options of how to deal with school closures, apart from providing their children with extra classes and hoping for the best.

“It is worrying where exams are concerned. Only thing parents can do is supervise kids and follow up with homework and those who send to tuition, and hope for the best,” he said.

Mak suggested that the Education Ministry could do more in ensuring the students’ health at a time like this, at the very least by providing students with masks in order to mitigate school cancellations.

“My personal point of view, it may be better, maybe more costly, but better if the government looked into providing masks for the students, on top of banning all outdoor activities.

“Because what is going to happen if the haze prolongs? Are we going to close school the entire time?” he asked, adding that his school has had to foot the bill to purchase masks for its students.

Noor Azimah suggested that schools utilise online learning tools to enable teachers, especially those in urban areas, to teach students without needing them to come to school.

“If this is going to be a yearly affair schools already have 1BestariNet. Private schools for instance, that have online learning, they make use of this in times of emergency.

“This is when national schools need to get their act together and start consider online learning when something like this happens and schools have to close unexpectedly, this is something they should seriously look into,” she said.