Nobody should be left behind but we cannot stop the whole world for them

Ther e are a lot of issues in the implementation of E-learning for students especially for poorer students who have poor access to internet services. In all our circulars, the message that nobody is to be left behind is clearly stated. Unfortunately, it is not clear as to how we implement this directive.

My view on this is formed by my experiences when I was studying in my primary school. We have so many issues in those days also but they have never stopped me from excelling in my studies.

When I was in primary one in Sandakan, we had to travel from the current Sandakan Marine Police Base to the school at Kampung Berhala Darat, in police trucks, if available, to a distance of 1.9 km, up a few steep hills in those days. A few buses cannot climb that hill a few times. Even my father's borrowed car was not able to climb once or twice. And once or twice, I had to walk back home by myself. What it means was that, we are disadvantaged compared to the students from the village that stay within walking distance from the school. We wasted a few hours traveling to school compared to the villagers.

When I was in primary two, I had to travel to S.K. Bubul, from the current Semporna Public jetty, a distance of 2.9 km. I remembered in one instance, with my younger brother, we had to walk back home in the rain. Police lorries were not reliable methods of transportation even in those days. They were provided as a special service to the families of the police force.

These situations are not unique. All over the world, students had to endure hardships in traveling to school. In one famous incident in China, a chinese student arrived in class with a frozen hair.

This story does not happen in China alone. It also happens in Sabah and I saw them with my own eyes. Students walking by themselves on the road from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan. Even in Bundu Tuhan, I saw students who had to climb steep hills while carrying a big rucksack on their backs.

For me, and these unfortunate students, they wasted a few hours of studying time just by going to school compared to students who are fortunate to stay near the schools or have more reliable transportation, but there was never any call to lower the standard of assessment or ask the other students to lower their teaching standard by lowering the teaching time to accommodate students who had to travel further. This is the unfortunate fact that is happening now for students with poor internet facilities.

But for me, and if you look at the faces of these students, these hardships were not really a burden. For me, it was a fun experience. It had never affected my studies in any way and I was able to beat the villagers when it came to examination results.

Of course, parents and society, as well as teachers, will try to accommodate disadvantaged students in the best way possible, but it should not be to reduce the standard of assessment by lowering testing standards, or lowering the standard of teaching for the rest of the students as well, just to accommodate disprivileged students. It is just too expensive and subject to circumstances, such as lorries that broke down, lorries that were deployed somewhere else for their primary purposes, i.e. to transport policemen instead of their children.

Lowering the assessment standard is also bad for the disadvantaged students. Paper certificates are not a guarantee of success in life. It is in the knowledge and skill that were gained in the studies. Sooner or later, employers or societies will find out also the lower level of assessments given to certain groups of students.

Lowering the teaching time is also bad not only for the disadvantaged students but for everybody else. It is better for the disadvantaged students to work harder due to their limited resources instead of demanding that others had to lower their standards in order to accommodate their disadvantages.

Fortunately, these calls are not seriously entertained by our education authorities during the Covid19 pandemic. Despite the lowering of teaching standard due to lower bandwidth for some students, eLearning is still pursued, instead of closing down schools completely. We are also fortunate because the Malaysian education authorities had been encouraging online learning or blended learing even before the Covid19 pandemic but at a lower key. Even I was half-hearted in those days, but was willing to follow orders and learn, but slowly.

When the Covid19 struck, eLearning had to be applied for all lessons, at least while the pandemic is still uncontrollable. Thanks for other lecturers who share their experiences, I find that Google Meet is superiour in many ways compared to face to face lectures. We can use Google Meet instead of face to face lectures even after the MCO.

Some students manage to adapt themselves such as shown in this video.

You can say that Malaysia is progressive in not lowering assessment and teaching standards to favour dis-privileged students but this is not true. We have regressed a few times already despite proven successes.

One was the 3-year engineering courses. Despite many failures, there are also many successes also. So the passing rate for students doing 4-year courses should be the same as 4-year courses previously. Despite the many successes, that program was abandoned with so many excuses. One of them was stress on the lecturers. I did not experience this as a lecturer, but I experienced this as a student.

The result is that, Malaysia reverts to 4-year courses, similar to USA that do not marticulation courses so need extra time for foundation studies, but in USA, some students were able to graduate in 2 years also. In Malaysia, it is not allowed. No matter how hard working or brilliant your. We do have these students. They don't need to attend any lecture and yet can still get full marks.

This problem does not just happen in Malaysia, but all over the world. In Germany, it used to be 6 years but now it wants to follow UK. According to the Washington Accord, the minimum number of years is 4, no matter how strong your foundation or matriculation courses are as in UK, so UK, added another year as an MSc, in order to comply with Washington Accord accredited engineers

But our Information Technology courses, had extended to 4 years instead of 3. If I were a student, I will not go to UMS. I waste one year. Luckily they do not extend it to 6 years like in Germany.