Saya terima tulisan berikut dalam WhatsApp tadi. Saya tidak tahu atau kenali siapa penulis asalnya. Oleh itu saya padamkan dua nama yang disebut di sini. But the message is more relevant. Sila baca komen saya pada penghujung - in English.
Terbaca posting keluhan pengusaha dan guru tadika yang rata-ratanya kata kanak-kanak yang dihantar ke taska sekarang pe'elnya pelik-pelik. Saya sendiri baca pun agak seriau. Ini dari komen Puan S------a H----i:
1. Tak pandai nak bermain, tak pandai nak hiburkan diri sendiri tanpa gajet.
2. Sensory seeking yang pelik untuk umur 5 tahun - jilat gam, jilat bakul sampah, jilat watercolour.
3. Tak ada kesabaran, tak boleh tunggu giliran, tak reti nak take turn.
4. 5 tahun tapi speech masih sepatah-sepatah.
5. Tak faham arahan, tak dengar arahan, tak boleh proses arahan, walaupun arahan mudah.
6. Tak boleh fokus untuk buat apa pun, semua nak cepat siap.
7. 5 tahun masih tak pandai nak makan sendiri, tak pandai urus diri.
8. 5 tahun masih berpampers.
9. Tak tahu bezakan barang kepunyaan sendiri atau kepunyaan orang lain.
10. Tak kenal bahaya.
11 Tak kenal diri sendiri bila nama dipanggil. Berpaling cuma bila dipanggil dengan panggilan “abang/ kakak/ adik” atau nama pendek yang mak selalu panggil kat rumah.
12. Tak ada awareness tentang sekeliling, kalau nak berjalan, rasa nak langgar orang, langgar je.
13. Tak aware tentang perasaan orang lain, lack of emphathy. Kalau terlanggar orang, so? Tak tahu nak buat apa.
14. Fine motor skills sangat lemah, jari jemari jadi keras, mungkin effect dr gadget yg lama.
15. Tak hormat orang yg lebih dewasa, kalau rasa nak pukul cikgu, pukul je. Tak ada rasa takut atau tahu itu perbuatan salah.
16. Terkejut kami minggu pertama sekolah, datang sekolah dengan “hoi!”. Semua cikgu di “hoi” kan dia.
17. Cara bermain yang membuli, pijak orang, sepak orang, lempang orang, macam adegan dalam youtube.
18. Banyak buat aksi stunt, panjat almari terjun, panjat meja terjun, panjat slide terjun ke bawah. Waaaa tak de rasa takut, cikgu yang takut awak terseliuh kaki.
19. Perkataan-perkataan yang tak sepatutnya dikeluarkan oleh budak tadika mcm “bab*”, dan carutan2 yang lain.
20. Paling terkesan “nanti dah besar sy nak hisap vape mcm ayah”.
Yang lebih merisaukan tentang perkara ini ialah kesemua anak-anak ini adalah anak-anak normal, bukan autistik atau ada masalah pembelajaran lain.
Teringat baru-baru ni borak dengan rakan pasal geran Social Entrepreneur. Antara yang "seksi" pada mata pemberi geran katanya adalah perusahaan berkaitan pembelajaran. Nak mengatasi masalah penguasaan 3M (Membaca, Mengira, Menulis) di kalangan pelajar sekolah rendah yang sangat-sangat rendah.
Kalau tak silap sayalah, kalau tak silap petik eh, 43% pelajar sekolah rendah hari ini berada di bawah par dalam penguasaan 3M.
Yang di sekolah rendah dengar begini.
Yang di tadika dengar benda begitu pula.
Risau betul untuk generasi akan datang ni.
Dalam kita tengah berfikir dan berkira macam mana nak tarik lebih ramai ke arah STEM, menarik lebih ramai kepada jurusan profesional, rupanya masalah yang lebih asas sedang berlaku pada generasi anak-anak.
Kredit : M-----d J-----e
My Comments :
I will just write in English. Five year olds are at a very impressionable age. They repeat what they hear at home. They also do or do not do what their parents show them or do not show them. Meaning the behaviour and character of a five year old child is completely at the mercy of his or her parents.
If the child uses the word 'babi' that is what his parents say at home.
If the kids 'speech masih sepatah-sepatah' it means the parents do not have good communications skills either. And we can blame that not just on the education system but on the society as a whole.
The society does not encourage curiosity or asking questions (any questions). Just do as you are told. Told by whom? As told by your elders, by the pemimpin, by the cikgu at school, by the ustaz and ustazah, by your society. It is a 'yellow bellied chicken' type of frightened society which is so afraid of asking questions. And what is worse is those who ask questions can get nailed shut under the tempurung. So the five year olds also end up
'speech masih sepatah-sepatah'. The head bone is connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone is connected to the backbone...
If the five year old tots 'masih tak pandai nak makan sendiri, tak pandai urus diri', 'lima tahun masih berpampers' again it reflects upon the parents. Too many young people marry when they are too young. In a 21st century urban environment, teenaged mothers and fathers in their early 20s are not fully equipped even to take care of themselves. Let alone starting a family and providing financial, material, emotional support and guidance to children. That is why 'lima tahun masih berpampers'. Instead of teaching their five year old kids how to clean themselves the parents find the pampers convenient.
Cara bermain yang membuli, pijak orang, sepak orang, lempang orang again reflects on the lack of parental supervision. It is the fault of the parents. They do not seem to know what is right and wrong. And the errant parents are the fault of the society. And the society is YOU, YOU and YOU alone.
When you say "kesemua anak-anak ini adalah anak-anak normal" what you are saying is that normal, healthy children (bukan autistic, terencat etc) are exhibiting abnormal behaviour on a community scale or on a societal scale. Meaning this has now become the norm. If you meet five year old kids in any tadika, this is the type of behaviour that you will likely observe. Abnormal has become normal.
So can you blame the neighbours if they feel really uncomfortable with you in the neighborhood?
And lets talk about the neighbours. Not just the neighbours next door but the neighbours in other countries and other societies. Lets leave out Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Gaza etc ok. Lets talk about the better societies - those who are already doing better than us and who we want to emulate. The 'I wanna be like you-hoo-hoo' countries.
First our own neighbours. How do other five year olds compare? Say Chinese and Indian five year olds? Do they wear pampers? Do they call the teacher 'Hoi'? Do they have problems 'cakap sepatah-sepatah'?
Then what about five year olds in China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Russia, Europe? Where do they stand?
Lets make honest comparisons. The Falsafah Tempurung is not going to help. If all you want is your own cocoon (duduk bawah tempurung) then please learn to crawl because the ceiling inside a tempurung is very low.
I want to share something else. Most recently there was a conversation between my wife (who is a qualified lawyer and also holds a Masters in Early Childhood Education) and a younger woman at the taman tasik where we go for our morning walks. The woman said that she had three children. But she felt 'relieved' because her oldest was at a sekolah asrama penuh. One less child to take care of. Her second child did not want to go to sekolah asrama penuh or to sekolah agama berasrama. But its ok because the child is going to a sekolah agama 'pagi sampai petang' (lunch provided). So someone else takes care of her second child - pagi sampai petang. The third child is a problem because she does not want to go anywhere - not even to sekolah agama pagi sampai petang. She wants to stay at home and go to school from home. This was the attitude of a mother towards her children - they were obviously too burdensome on her. Then why have children?
I recall my son was offered a place at a sekolah asrama penuh (Dr Mahathir's alma mater in Kedah). My wife and I turned down the offer. We could not imagine being separated from our son at such an early age. Plus who knows what kind of crap goes on at these sekolah asrama?
But the reality is that today too many parents cannot cope with their responsibility as parents. They cannot take care of their own children. Instead of bringing great joy and happiness they see their kids as "tasks" and "burdensome".
This is exactly why those 'board and lodging' madrasahs (including the liwat types) are increasingly popular. For relatively very little money people can dump their kids at these madrassahs. They sandwich 30, 40 or more kids in one room, feed them simple meals and I dont know what else goes on.
Whereas in China, many tadika teachers are educated to the Masters degree level. To qualify as a kindergarten teacher in China, the teachers are often evaluated by 10 supervisors. They take early childhood education very seriously.
And in more advanced societies even before the kids even set foot in the kindergarten their parents spend considerable time and effort to teach their children the basics - hygiene, basic etiquette, how to speak, the dos and donts. Enough to help their kids to begin absorbing useful things.
It is not the job of the tadika to change a five year olds pampers or how to recognise his or her name. All that begins at home. This is where the problems really start.
