I couldn’t help not to write this post after reading daddykhong’s entry.
Part of parenthood worries is the kids education. Which school to sent the kids to, what type of school, will we have enough savings to last them through their education. For us, we have done our very first step of saving up now in insurances for their higher education.
For me I’m more particular than hubby when concerning of school choice. Even for pre-school I’m already cracking my head and cross checking with my long list of criterias/considerations. Hubby left this to me only input very minimal suggestion when concerning of pre-school choice, because he himself had never attended kindergarten or any pre-school, thus he’s less fussy than me.
Let aside pre-school, the most headache is still the kids formal schooling when approaching age 7.
These are the type of schools available in Malaysia
- Goverment/National school (There are 3 types - Malay, Chinese & Tamil. Syllabus is the same but the language that the syllabus is conveyed is different, of course in Chinese and Tamil medium there would be more subjects compares to the Malay ones)
- Private school (Primary to Secondary, same gov syllabus)
- International school
- For secondary, there’s Chinese Independence School (Taiwan Syllabus)
Most of the ordinary families will only have the worries of what type of National schools to enrol their kids to, the location, whether they kids will be accepted into their school choice. Of course for those more privilege kids, they have a wider option of considering International and private schools which might sound like another alien world to many common families.
We are not super rich, just middle average family, but I do remember SIL vaguely mentioned about private school. But personaly I feel that it’s unnecessary. I dont want hubby and me to work ourself to death with most of the income spent on the kids school fees at private school. That would deprive us from other things in our daily life. Not to say we don’t want to give the best to our kids, but I guess the money can be spent wisely elsewhere for the kids benefit as well. Maybe with just one child, I might consider, but when planning to have at least 3 and trying to be fair to each of them, I don’t think we can afford to sent all of them to private one. Other than that, I don’t want my kids to be consious about their privilege even we don’t mention about it. I don’t want them to grow up feeling that they have been given this special arrangement whereby most of the peer around them is attending the normal national schools. Don’t want them to grow up to be a spoilt brat and arrogant. I believe social integrity can be further enforced if the kids is in national school where they mingle with peer from different backgrounds. In private school, they only get to group up with the super rich, those who’s born with the golden key in their mouth. (败家仔/二世祖/千金小姐/公仔哥儿)
Of course when choices is left with national schools we will have the following worries
- Academic standards / quality of teaching
- Proficiency in the 3 languages
- National integration
I’ve grown up in a small town where private/international schools is unheard of to me or beyond reached (Me very “sua tu/babi hutan”). I’ve attended a SRJK (C) (National Type – Chinese School) and later continue my secondary education in a SMK. (A national secondary school. There are two types of national secondary school. SMK and SMJK with the latter usually having 80% of Chinese students) from then on I was in private colleges.
Hubby attended a SK and later a SMK then later further his studies in TAR (wonder how come he never picks up any Mandarin during his years there) and his Master in UK. Both of us were the breed of national school and we turn out OK. (Our English proficiency?? You judge lah!)
All my cousins did well in national schools. They are now orthodontist, doctor/doctor to be, pharmacist, musician, microbiologist. And they are no book worm but well rounded students. Their comand in english is good, they can be parred with those that graduated from private/international school, and mind you, most my cousins are from small town, not the urban city.
I’m not all praise for our national schools. I know the teacher-students ratio is high. Especially in Chinese school, it can go up to as many as 50 students in the class. I don’t like the spoon feed method. I think the knowledge covers in the text is limited and dull and for Chinese National school there’s a lot of pressure and drilling from the teacher. In National Malay school you have teachers that are holding those “Tidak apa” attitude and not forgotten teachers that are not knowledgeable and cannot speak good English.
But I won’t let all these hinder me from sending my kids to national schools. We should not rely solely on the school and teachers for our kids education. Parents play an important role in guiding, coaching the kids. Family upbringing also will encourage students to have the initiative to want to excel and let not just depends on school text. I don’t have any worries about their English language profieciency as we speak English at home and we will be able to correct them through daily conversations. I’m cultivating my kids the love of reading now so that they can absorb a wider knowledge from reading and I’ve also invested in children encyolpedias which covers wider range on Science topics and I’m slowly flipping the books together with my kids. I believe as long as there is an interest for them to find out, they will gain from whatever they read. I also believe that parents who is capable to surf the net and have the interest to find out more for the kids wellbeing is also capable to coach the kids along the way throughout their studies journey. We parents should learn along the way too, finding new information/knowlegde to answer the kids queries, to correct them if the teachers not able to do the proper job. The success of the students is very much dependent on the parents guidance (as for the example in my family), not so much of the school and teachers. So which ever school one attended make not much difference.
We have planned to send the kids to National Type Chinese School for their primary education. I insist want them to learn an extra language, since hubby is a total “banana” I think he would appreciate if the kids could learn more than one language. I’m confindent that I can coach them along just like what my mum did to us. I know it would be a very pressured study environment in a chinese school, but that’s only for the first 6 years and I don’t intend to send them to many tuitions and extra classes. Once they finish the first 6 year of primary schooling, and when they enter the national type of secondary school and start mingle with those from National type Malay school, I know they will be able to cope better with the stress compare to those from Malay school.
As for long term plan, we hope that the kids can study hard and secure a place in local uni and maybe go oversea for year for exposure. But if they failed to (quota system etc etc) then we are prepared for them to go on “DADDY’S SCHOLORSHIP” for their further studies. So far only one argument with hubby..the location of the school. Hubby wanted them to go for the one near in laws place, I want to put them in the new school near our new house, to save time from commuting and avoid the jam. We will stick to the former as for the time being.
Ps: To enrol the kids in national school. One needs to register the kid in the desire school on the year the kid turn 5 and in the month of March. Bring along the kid’s birth cert, your own IC and utilities bills. You might be able to secure a place if you miss the registration period with a lot of “lubang” for string pulling, back doors procedure and fatty cheque for donation. :p
Posted by dragonmummy 
Posted by dragonmummy 
