KUALA LUMPUR – A clumsily put together DidikTV video featuring a volunteer teacher has angered parents and confused students as she said individuals must “marry before they can reproduce”, which was also made worse by poor grammar and pronunciation, as well as factual errors.
An Education Ministry source told The Vibes that the video was released by mistake, adding that a meeting was held to address the matter.
Currently, special education channel DidikTV comes under the ministry’s Resource and Technology Education Division, headed by Maznah Abu Bakar.
Maznah told The Vibes that hundreds of volunteer teachers came forward for the initiative, but less than 100 were chosen for the production of DidikTV videos.
The recently launched DidikTV has 17 hours of daily educational content and is meant to increase access to quality education for students nationwide, especially for those with poor internet connectivity or appropriate devices.
While lauding the extra hours of educational television, National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Harry Tan said: “As teachers, we strongly feel that there is no way the human touch or face-to-face teaching can be replaced.”
Parent Action Group for Education president Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said DidikTV has content for only Year 2, and Forms 2, 4 and 5, although there are 14 levels of learning, from preschool to Form 6.
“SPM 2020 had four hours of formal revision, of which three were on Bahasa Arab. It appeares that learning impact is minimal.
“For formal learning, it should benefit all levels for an hour every day for it to be impactful. The time for formal learning should be fixed daily, so students can plan their day. Currently, the weekly programmes are a maze.”
Noor Azimah said volunteer teachers should not be exploited and their scripts must be vetted for professionalism.
Meanwhile, a Facebook post appeared to be written by a teacher who took part in DidikTV videos said “things could have been better planned and proofread”.
She said teachers who took part in the production of DidikTV had to prepare their own scripts and slides for the programmes, despite not being trained to do so, adding that each script is around 20 to 25 pages long.
She added that they prepared the scripts while juggling online lessons, sending daily reports, grading students’ work, attending meetings and other administrative work.
“When I went for my recordings and prepared my own scripts, I was filled with anxiety and panicked most of the time because I was so uncomfortable in front of the camera.” – The Vibes, February 19, 2021
.jpg)
