PETALING JAYA — How much is too much? That is apparently the question raised by a teacher, popular on social media, with regard to an activity in a Standard 3 Mathematics book.
In one of the activities, students were asked to indicate the exchange rate of several currencies that is the same value as RM1.
The page listed several resources that students can refer to in order to obtain the answers, among them the Internet, newspaper or their teachers.
However, for Mohd Fadli Salleh, he found this activity unnecessary and 'morally inappropriate'. It is unclear what he meant by morally inappropriate, but in his Facebook post, he labelled the activity as 'tak dak akidah'.
He claimed that even bank officers would not be able to answer the question.
In his post, Mohd Fadli said this particular activity was part of the topic on money in the Standard 3 Mathematics syllabus.
"What is the importance of this topic for Standard 3 students?" he asked, referring to the currency exchange rate activity.
He demanded that those who drafted the activity book to list down five benefits of teaching this subject to nine-year-olds.
The post has garnered over 1,400 shares since he put it up on Sept 25.
Several parents in the comment section agreed with Mohd Fadli. One parent claimed that even the Standard 1 activity books issued by the Ministry of Education contained 'nonsensical' questions. It is not known what this parent meant by nonsensical as no examples were provided.
Another Facebook user remarked that questions like this would just encourage students to use gadgets.
Mohd Fadli replied, referring to the gadgets, that it would be used to play games and surf inappropriate websites.
This is not the first time Mohd Fadli raised this subject.
In a lengthy post in October 2022, he detailed the inclusion of currency exchange in a Standard 3 syllabus and the arguments that supported it during a syllabus upgrading session among teachers.
He insisted that nine wasn't the right age to introduce currency exchange rates.
"This is the problem when the higher-ups have crony appointments, political appointments and yes man as well as bootlickers. They will nod and agree to everything including those that don't make sense like this one," Mohd Fadli said. — The Vibes, September 28, 2023
