I advise the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to stop belly-ache and just to issue a directive to revoke all punitive actions against Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia (SGMM) chief Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari and all other teachers for criticising the student-based assessment (SBA) system.
What is Muhyiddin hoping to achieve by denying that he was involved in transferring Nor Izzat who had spearheaded a protest against the SBA system within 24 hours from Jerantut to a rural school in Pahang last week?
Let me tell Muhyiddin that Malaysians are not interested whether the transfer order came from the district education office or otherwise, but that as Education Minister he must take full and personal responsibility for punitive actions taken against Nor Izzat and all teachers who had criticised the SBA – and that his first duty now is to countermand all the punitive actions which had been issued not only against Nor Izzat but all other teachers who had been penalised for the courage of their convictions in speaking out against the disastrous implementation of SBA.
Will Muhyiddin next say that the suspension of the SBA did not come him and he should not be queried on the subject?
Actually, Muhyiddin should hold himself responsible for the SBA mess and give a full accounting why he had allowed the educational system to deteriorate to such a dismal state.
Teachers and school administrators who found it hard to cope with the SBA to track students’ performances, had fallen back on examinations.
This has led to a situation where many schools have two systems. On the surface is the SBA, which is done to please officials in Putrajaya, but beneath there is the old annual examination system.
The examination system is being implemented by individual schools without the knowledge of Putrajaya but the schools are using it to track students’ performances.
The use of the two system was causing a lot of strain on teachers and school officials – which is indeed an extraordinary “transformation” of the education system, from bad to worse and not from better to best!
Why did Muhyiddin take so long to wake up to the SBM disaster, resulting in the “shame-faced” back-door suspension of the SBA yesterday?