Reading Liong Kam Chong’s letter on school breaks the other day made me a little annoyed. He talks about how long school breaks can lead to disciplinary problems, substitution classes, the need for outside tuition and then ends up by saying that Malaysian children need more studying time!!! An excerpt from his letter reads

But, too many of these breaks will disrupt the study atmosphere and learning momentum in schools.

As it is, the school calendar already prescribes two major term breaks and two minor mid-term breaks.

If we are to add the two festive breaks mentioned above, we would have six school breaks in one school year for the normal, non-boarding schools in towns and in the suburbs. And this has not even taken into count other shorter breaks that the schools have during the school terms.

Saturday replacement classes are also a point of contention.

More often than not, schools use these Saturdays for educational activities rather than actual teaching and learning classes.

Even if normal lessons are scheduled, they are done in shortened periods or in reduced times. Saturdays are faithfully kept as half-days and this is particularly true for schools that need to replace both their morning and afternoon sessions on the same Saturday.

Moreover, teachers and students tend to switch-off mentally and physically on Saturdays. Consciously or unconsciously, we have been conditioned for a five-day working week.

Some school bus drivers are not running those days.

As such, Saturday schools always record a high absenteeism rate.

Another negative effect of official long breaks is that the not-so-disciplined students – and there are many of them – tend to take “unofficial” breaks.

If a public holiday falls on Thursday, these students will not go to school on Friday.

If the public holiday is on a Tuesday, they may not appear on Monday.

I believe this students’ behaviour and attitude have directly or indirectly contributed to the woes of disciplinary problems in schools.

Too many long school breaks may also force teachers to engage in a fast-track approach to finish their subject syllabus in time for examinations.

This is bad for the average students and may also explain partly the need for outside tuitions for many students.

It’s time that the Education Ministry and school authorities seriously rethink the need to have extended festive holidays for normal, non-residential schools in towns and in the suburbs.

Our children need more learning time in school!

I’m sorry, Liong, but I feel that the issue will not be solved by jailing children in schools – to be honest, when it comes to holidays, Malaysians don’t have it as bad as the Europeans. They get anywhere from a month to two months’ break during summer and then two to three weeks for Christmas & New Year. This excludes other public holidays and so forth. In total, that already has exceed the six weeks that Liong feels is too much.

Yet, do people here complain that the holidays are too long? No. In fact, people over here use the holiday period to do things together as a family. I remember Nil’s uncle who works with the Ministry of Education telling me that France is a social country, one that values the importance of spending time with family.

Personally, I feel that Malaysian children are already under too much pressure from the constant studying which can make A LOT resent the education process and hate learning. Learning is lifelong and can take place even during holidays. It’s just up to parents to figure out how to do all those things. It’s not very hard.

Instead of taking your child to the movies or the shopping mall, how about an educational trip to the musuem or science gallery?

Instead of taking pictures of a holiday, why not incorporate some cultural education in your trips around Malaysia, like visiting historical or cultural landmarks?

Instead of sitting around watching TV in the evenings, why not buy some education games like Scrabble and such and play with your children?

Bonding time is also a time of education – children can learn a lot from their parents’ wisdom and experience of life. Being closer to one’s child allows for that to happen easier and easily. I firmly believe that until today, I learnt the most from my parents simply because I am close to them…

Anyway, here is a snapshot of my letter to the editor as a rebuttal to Liong’s (you can click on it for a bigger, readable version)…