It’s time we look at what’s going on in classrooms
From Wan Chang Da and Hema Letchamanan
Aina (not her real name) is 14 and in Form 2, but she struggles to read Standard 4 text. Classroom lessons are a blur because she cannot follow the teacher’s words, and the textbooks make little sense to her.
For Aina, school is a place where she must be, only because her single mother works long hours.
Kumar (not his real name), 16, is in Form 4, but his reading is halting and slow. He understands very little Bahasa Melayu and almost no English, so the classroom lessons pass him by.
For Kumar, school is a place to be with friends and to have a proper meal.
Are Aina and Kumar outliers? Here are two children who attended school for a decade but continue to struggle with foundational literacy. Their struggles represent a larger silent crisis in our classrooms, with students present in body but absent in learning.
In the case of Aina, she struggled even with the literacy of her native language.
Do they have special learning needs?
What support…
Coco ke final Terbuka Wuhan