Kurikulum Transformasi

One site that I visit regularly is Puan Ainon Mohd’s blog (she’s the chairperson of PTS group). Last week, she mentioned that Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia (KPM) will introduce Kurikulum Transformasi to replace KBSR and KBSM. Full blogpost below:

Kementerian Pelajaran akan Menamatkan Kurikulum KBSR dan KBSM yang Ada Sekarang

Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia (KPM) akan memperkenalkan "Kurikulum Transformasi" bagi menggantikan Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) dan Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Menengah (KBSM) yang digunakan sekarang. Kenyataan itu disampaikan oleh Ketua Pengarah Pelajaran, Tan Sri Alimudddin, kepada para penerbit buku pada suatu majlis taklimat baru-baru ini.

Perbezaan yang paling besar antara KBSR & KBSM dengan Kurikulum Transformasi adalah pada isu peperiksaan. Dalam Kurikulum Transformasi, tekanan pada peperiksaan akan dikurangkan. Ini bermakna, bagi para penerbit, apabila Kurikulum Transformasi dilaksanakan, mereka akan kehilangan bisnes menerbitkan buku-buku teks dan buku-buku ulangkaji peperiksaan.

Sebaliknya, permintaan bagi buku-buku pengkayaan pelbagai subjek akan meningkat. Maksudnya, sekolah akan memerlukan buku-buku sains, matematik dan lain-lain, yang ditulis bukan sebagai buku teks, tetapi sebagai buku rujukan, buku bacaan umum dan juga dalam bentuk buku-buku cerita.

While I am grateful that the new curriculum will not be named Kurikulum 1Malaysia, the name Kurikulum Transformasi still makes me cringe! Makes me think of Transformers immediately. What good news it is that this curriculum will not be as exam-oriented, isn’t it? (haha how ironic that I just posted a 'good luck for SPM' post two days ago) But what is the implementation plan? When will the new curriculum be introduced? I hope it’ll be introduced in time for Munief, who will be in Standard 1 in… 2013. In fact, I think a good year to introduce this new curriculum would be in 2012 when PPSMI will be fully reversed. Then, change management could be optimised, for example we’d need to change textbooks only once.

When googling, I found a paper written by the Pengarah of Bahagian Perkembangan Kurikulum, dated 2008, on Kurikulum Transformasi. Below is an excerpt.

KONVENSYEN NASIONAL PIPP KEDUA (2008)
MEMBANGUN MODAL INSAN
Tn. Hj. Ali bin Ab. Ghani (A.M.N.)
Pengarah
Bahagian Perkembangan Kurikulum
Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia

...
Ke arah itu, satu bentuk pengubahsuaian sedang dijalankan bagi mengatasi masalah ini. Dari aspek kurikulum sekolah, Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum (BPK) sedang berusaha membangunkan satu bentuk kurikulum baru yang lebih berpusatkan murid, lebih memberikan peluang kepada murid untuk meneroka bidang ilmu tersebut dengan lebih mendalam, dan kurikulum yang menyeronokkan dan tidak berorientasikan peperiksaan. Berdasarkan keperluan ini, BPK membangunkan konsep Transformasi Kurikulum Kebangsaan yang membawa cadangan perubahan kepada konsep, bentuk, struktur dan operasi kurikulum persekolahan kebangsaan.

Struktur kurikulum baru KBSR memperkenalkan konsep tunjang – satu bentuk pengklasifikasian bidang ilmu, kemahiran dan nilai yang berfokus kepada pembentukan modal insan seimbang dari segi jasmani, emosi, rohani dan inteleknya. Enam tunjang dikenalpasti mewakili bidang ilmu, kemahiran dan nilai yang menjadi asas kepada pembangunan insan yang dihasratkan seperti yang ditunjukkan dalam rajah di bawah.

(sorry, too 'lazy' to printscreen the chart)

The 6 pillars mentioned are:

Komunikasi (termasuk penguasaan bahasa)
Kerohanian, Sikap dan Nilai
Kemanusiaan
Keterampilan Diri
Fizikal & Estetika
Literasi Sains dan Matematik

I’m not sure whether this is a proposal or a plan, but I think it’s likely to be the former. With parents especially criticising the current system regularly, this would be a good time to give suggestions and ideas, isn’t it? I’m not sure whether they will accept or even read our suggestions, but there’s no harm trying. Let’s! Here are KPM’s contact details that I got from their website.

Portal rasmi Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia
http://www.moe.gov.my/
03-77237070
kpkpm@moe.gov.my

When browsing their website, I read the notice that there is weekly show Secara Langsung Bersama KPM every Saturday morning from 11.05 to 11.30 am from 3 Oct to 26 Dec on RTM1.

So, what do I want to see being introduced in school? Just a brief recollection, I think of 3 things:
1) show and tell – each student in a class have to take turn giving a short presentation on whatever topics they’d like, with or without supporting objects or materials
2) science fair – let students form an independent group and choose liberally a science project that they genuinely feel interested in
3) research – let students do research on any topic that they are interested in and encourage them to use both the traditional and digital resources to come up with a presentation in any format they like (printed booklet, power point presentation, manila card, etc)

As I wrote the above, I notice that what I’m advocating are ownership (by letting them choose their own topic) and independence (by not limiting their method of research/work/presentation).

One thing that is not related to curriculum that I would like to support (because I’m sure it have been and is being proposed) is to increase the salary of teachers!

Anyway, back to the topic of curriculum, what do you want to see being included in the new curriculum?