KBSR vs KSSR

This year our Ministry of Education had introduced KSSR syllabus to be implemented in our primary schools throughout Malaysia. The reason behind this newly introduced system is to replace the KBSR syllabus and the soft landing of PPSMI or better known as ETeMS (English for Teaching Mathematics and Science). The initial intention of introducing the plan was to increase the standard of English in Malaysia. But after having so many complaints from parents who claimed that the English Language proficiency in Malaysia is getting from bad to worse, even after implementation of ETeMs, it had been called off. But this would be done gradually, thus the official end for ETeMS is in 2016. But when you look back in 2003 when they first introduced it, everything was done in a hurry. They didn’t even wait to get the teachers ready for the massive transformation. Their experience of teaching Mathematics and Science in their mother tongue for years, didn’t guarantee the same effectiveness when they used English. Old and wise they may be but some of them had English command even worse than a seven year old. In my opinion, that led to the downfall of ETeMS.

                KSSR, being new could not be judged just yet. Recently, I was appointed as a Year 1 English teacher. In my seven years of teaching experience, this is my first time teaching Year 1. What can I say about KSSR is that, it looks promising. The syllabus is designed to help the students to acquire the four skills, which is different than KBSR which focuses more on the thematic content. The best part is phonetics is being introduced as the foundation of acquiring English Language.