KUALA LUMPUR – SPM candidate Aina Nursyahira Azlan, who lives with her parents at the Desa Mentari PPR flats, is busy preparing for her exams, set to take place on February 22, barring any further delays by the Education Ministry.
According to her, the few months of face-to-face learning last year interspersed with online learning and revision classes with teachers in school this year is not enough preparation for her for the exams.
“I feel let down at this moment. This is an important exam for me and, as a science student, I am sitting for nine subjects. However, the paper 3 for all my science subjects cover lab work and we hardly did them during online classes.
“I mostly use my parents’ phones and have other siblings who need to use them as well for their classes,” Aina told The Vibes at a community hall in the Petaling Jaya flats.
Similar sentiments were shared by Nur Itmiknan Husna Jefri, who is sitting the SPM for subjects including Accounting, Economics and Mathematics, which she said are difficult to learn online.
Her RM5 mobile data prepaid top-up for her parent’s phone is insufficient most of the time. Moreover, internet connection during class is unstable, leaving her in a quandary as to how to complete her lessons.
“Accounting is susah (difficult) to study online as there are many questions to ask. Usually, we can ask our teacher questions after a physical class, but when it is conducted online, I feel malu (ashamed) to ask as the teacher finishes the class at night.
“Also, there are no assessments during class as the teacher is too busy trying to convey the lesson,” said Itmiknan, adding that the atmosphere at home with family members and noisy neighbours also makes it difficult for her to follow the lessons.
Lacking resources
For Darshini Murvgan, who also stays at a PPR flat, online classes are too fast and she has problems catching up with subjects such as Accounting and Economics.
However, she said she is lucky as she managed to find a tuition centre that conducts online classes and offered help to her for free.
“The other thing that upsets me is I have to argue with my parents to borrow one of their mobile phones for online learning.”
SPM candidate Elaiyamamathi Ramachandran has plans to become a chef but is currently struggling with History as it is the toughest subject for her to grasp online.
This is compounded by her parents no longer working full-time and the family having to manage on her mother’s meagre income.
Even then, she said, her parents do their best to pay for mobile data.
“The internet connection is bad and the teacher has to contend with many students, around 24 of them. But she does her best.
“I also hope that my sibling can have better facilities than I do now.”
For Muhammed Alif Ashraf Husin, it is a different set of problems. His single mother is trying her best to ensure he has as much online learning as possible. But, the classes can stretch from 8am to 9pm daily, not to mention the fact that he has to also be on standby for last-minute classes.
Piecemeal help
Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, in a statement to The Vibes, echoed the struggles that many SPM candidates are facing, especially poor preparation by the Education Ministry.
He said students are being left to manage on their own with little or no support from the government as students lack devices for online learning and affordable Wi-Fi packages.
“This I noticed since MCO (movement control order) 1.0. At that time, when schools began online learning, I realised that lower M40 and B40 students were facing a lot of difficulties.
“The online learning experience is not something the national syllabus was prepared for.
“There were families that I visited during MCO 1.0 last year that complained to me about how their children had to share devices, or that they had no internet access, or that classes were not consistently conducted, and very few students could actually stay online.
“The problem is a serious one and I don’t think the education minister has done enough.”
Now that all states, barring Sarawak, are under MCO 2.0, he said a lot of the basic groundwork – infrastructure, curriculum, testing systems such as Zoom and Google Meet – could have been done last year.
“The education minister would have been looped in the discussions around MCO 2.0 and, surely, would have had contingency plans in case states were forced to undergo restrictions. Unfortunately, various ministries, including the Education, Communications and Multimedia, and Higher Education, have been slow in preparing,” said Fahmi, whose constituency has a large number of families living in PPR flats.
On the government’s Cerdik programme, Fahmi said: “The announcement of this programme was made on November 6. It did not require parliamentary approval because it was not in the Budget 2021 allocations.
“As such, most of the groundwork should have been done and laptops/tablets should have been distributed in January, immediately after MCO 2.0 was announced.
“Instead, it took a massive public outcry before concrete information was released. Even then, we are not given specific information on how the 150,000 devices will be distributed, what their specifications are, and which 500 schools will be selected.
“We also do not know how the students will be identified, and when these devices will be in the hands of the students.”
He also raised concerns of the lack of internet access for many of the students.
“Who will be accountable if this programme (Cerdik) does not succeed?
“These and other issues related to online learning continue to plague the current government, given the high numbers of daily Covid-19 cases.
“Meanwhile, the expectations and challenges of SPM 2021 students will be another item on the agenda for the Education Ministry to look into.” – The Vibes, February 1, 2021
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