Topic of the Day-The Purposal of UPSR&PMR Abolishment

The problem is not exams, it is with the education policies

THE recent proposal to abolish the UPSR and PMR examinations had created a heated public debate among Malaysians, who in general are against such a move. I too join in the chorus calling for the idea to be dropped. It would be irresponsible and unwise to abolish these exams which have been in place for many decades and served their purpose reasonably well.

Our education system may have become very exam-oriented but the cause is not the exams themselves. Many major changes to the education system are made abruptly without due debate and consideration. The folly of such decisions are then realised a little too late when the damage has already been done.

Tendency for education to become exam-oriented is a universal problem and is not just peculiar to us. Even advanced nations have gone through such problems, some even worse. They have not done away with exams but found alternate ways to overcome it to some extent.

Doing away with exams may be the easy way out, but it will only lead to greater repercussions which we will regret later.

Whether we like it or not, exams are necessary as there are no better means available to assess the capability of the student.

If we abolish exams, what are we going to use to gauge a student’s knowledge and capability for selection to enter universities and get scholarships? How are we going to set a national standard for all students to measure up?

Instead of abolishing existing exams, we should device ways to make the exams more “intelligent”, whereby they can be used to assess the overall ability, aptitude and capability in critical thinking, reasoning and maturity of thought.

Examinations should be tailored to evaluate these aspects instead of the usual “vomiting” out of memorized facts as it is being done now. There should be more stringent criteria for awarding As in examination.

It is deeply disturbing that the national education system has long been used as a political tool which is the main reason for the pathetic state it is in now. There seems to be no sense of purpose or direction with repeated changes to the education policies. It should be left to the officials in the Education Ministry, academia and teachers to run the system in a more professional manner without undue political interference.

Examinations are essential part of our education and they should be improved to prepare our students for the competitive global world and not be abolished for any reason. Sitting for an important exam like the SPM after going through school for 11 years without sitting for any major national examination would be like going for the World Cup finals withouttraining.

DR CHRIS ANTHONY,

Experts fear long oil effect on marine life, food chain

18 July 2010, WASHINGTON — Scientists studying the massive BP oil spill fear a decades-long, “cascading” effect on marine life that could lead to a shift in the overall biological network in the Gulf of Mexico.

With some 400 species estimated to be at risk — from the tiniest oil-eating bacteria to shrimp and crabs, endangered sea turtles, brown pelicans and sperm whales — experts say the impact of oil and chemical dispersants on the food chain has already begun, and could grow exponentially.

“A major environmental experiment is underway,” Ron Kendall, director of the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University, told AFP.

“We are already impacting the base of the food chain,” he said, including plankton, which provide crucial food for fish, and juvenile shrimp in intertidal marshes along the Gulf Coast.

Kendall, whose institute is studying tissue samples from live and dead Gulf fish to analyze the spill’s impact, helped study effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil disaster on wildlife in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

With the Exxon Valdez, a finite amount of oil poured into the sea — about one 17^th of the low estimate of the oil that has gushed from a ruptured well into the Gulf — and rose to the surface to coat the shoreline.

“This is so much more complex, what we’re dealing with now,” he said, noting that the 1.84 million gallons (7.0 million liters) of chemical dispersants used to fight the spill has kept some of the oil from fouling shores, but created potentially drastic problems by breaking up the oil has into droplets that may never be recovered.

Dispersants, says Kendall, release aromatic hydrocarbons and allow small oil droplets to be consumed by marine life, potentially threatening the food supply for humans.

No contaminated Gulf fish or seafood has reached the market, according to experts, but authorities have closed some 35 percent of all fishing waters, threatening the livelihoods of thousands and putting the region’s multibillion-dollar seafood industry in peril.

Researchers have reportedly observed major die-offs of organisms such as pyrosomes, cucumber-shaped creatures that are favorite meals of endangered sea turtles, which have been dying by the hundreds.

Kendall acknowledged that species shifts are possible but added that “we’re at the early stages of documenting the scientific effects of what’s occurring.”

BP and the US government say they have found more than 2,600 dead birds, mammals and turtles, but Doug Inkley, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, warns that could be the tip of the iceberg.

Many dead fish and sharks sink, so their numbers may never be known.

Inkley pointed to ongoing studies which show oil is expected to have a large effect on plankton — and the animals that eat them.

“This could be an effect that will ripple all the way up the food chain,” he said.

He fears a delayed disaster, similar to when Prince William Sound’s Pacific herring population collapsed four years after the Exxon Valdez spill, likely because few of the herring that spawned in 1989 reached maturity.

Dozens of marine and bird species were beginning their breeding season in April when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, setting off the huge spill.

“You could have a (population) crash later because of the failure of many of the young to survive this year,” said Inkley. “The impacts on wildlife I expect will last for years, if not decades.”

Congressman Ed Markey, chairman of a House subcommittee on energy and the environment, echoed the concerns in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration.

He said evidence showed “the marine food chain in the Gulf of Mexico has already been contaminated,” and pointed to researchers who recently uncovered oil droplets found inside crab larvae harvested from the Gulf.

“This finding is particularly disconcerting because these larvae are a source of food for numerous aquatic species and this is therefore the first sign that hydrocarbons have entered into the food web.”

Complicating the scenario, the Gulf will soon host millions of fowl on autumn and winter migrations.

“We’ll have a whole new wave of ducks and waterbirds that will be coming here and getting affected,” Kendall said. “Who knows what impact that will bring?”

WorldVision Malaysia

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Inspired by our Christian values, World Vision is dedicated to working with the world's most vulnerable people. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

World Vision helps the poor to help themselves, working with them to build sustainable futures for their children, families and communities through emergency relief, education, health care, economic development and promotion of justice.

World Vision Malaysia (WVM) began in 1997 as a Support Office with the aim of raising funds for and awareness of needy children and communities overseas. Among them which WVM is supporting are:

• Bati, Cambodia
• YongSheng, Hotan, Pingquan and Liping, China
• Kangayam, Arpana and Moradabad, India
• Singkawang and Ternate, Indonesia
• Phonethong, Laos
• Marjeyoun, Lebanon
• Nalaikh, Mongolia
• Mya Nandar, Mawlamyine and Kawthaung, Myanmar
• Thusalushaka, South Africa
• Kuan Niang, Prai Burng, Kapur, and Mae Sariang, Thailand
• Ba Thuoc and Tua Chua, Vietnam

For more information,do visit: http://www.worldvision.com.my

Ancient species discovered in Barrier Reef depths

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian scientists have discovered bizarre prehistoric sea life hundreds of metres below the Great Barrier Reef, in an unprecedented mission to document species under threat from ocean warming.

Ancient sharks, giant oil fish, swarms of crustaceans and a primitive shell-dwelling squid species called the Nautilus were among the astonishing life captured by remote controlled cameras at Osprey Reef.

Lead researcher Justin Marshall Thursday said his team had also found several unidentified fish species, including "prehistoric six-gilled sharks" using special low-light sensitive cameras which were custom designed to trawl the ocean floor, 1,400 metres (4,593 feet) below sea level.

"Some of the creatures that we've seen we were sort of expecting, some of them we weren't expecting, and some of them we haven't identified yet," said Marshall, from the University of Queensland.

"There was a shark that I really wasn't expecting, which was a false cat shark, which has a really odd dorsal fin."

The team used a tuna head on a stick to attract the creatures, which live beyond the reach of sunlight.

Marshall said the research had been made more urgent by recent oil spills affecting the world heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef, and the growing threat to its biodiversity by the warming and acidification of the world's oceans.

"One of the things that we're trying to do by looking at the life in the deep sea is discover what's there in the first place, before we wipe it out," Marshall told AFP.

"We simply do not know what life is down there, and our cameras can now record the behaviour and life in Australia's largest biosphere, the deep sea," he added.

Scientists have already warned that the 345,000-square kilometre (133,000-square mile) attraction is in serious jeopardy, as global warming and chemical runoff threaten to kill marine species and cause disease outbreaks.

Chinese coal ship Shen Neng 1 gouged a three-metre scar in the reef when it ran aground whilst attempting to take a short cut on April 3, leaking tonnes of oil into a famed nature sanctuary and breeding site.

About 200,000 litres of heavy fuel oil spewed into waters south of the reef last March when shipping containers full of fertiliser tumbled off the Hong Kong-flagged Pacific Adventurer during a cyclone, piercing its hull.

It was one of Australia's worst ever oil spills.

Marshall said the cameras would now be sent to the sludge-ridden Gulf of Mexico to monitor the effects of the oil spill there on marine life.

~Monday~

Today, was a totally exhausted day.I have never been in the class for such a long time. From 2p.m. to 5p.m. Huh.This was because we had LDV class with our lecturer for our persuasive speech presentation.

Honestly, before the speech had started, I felt nothing unless my anxious about my overdue story book. It is "Mustrated Classic Frankenstein". I could not remember when I had borrowed the book until I was given a letter and informed that I still "owe" to library. In the letter, they urge me to give back the book before August and penalty will be taken if I failed to do so. 

"HA?", that my respond was. I really couldnt remember anything about the book. Even I was quite familiar with the tittle of the book, but somehow, I was totally loss my memory about this. I had only a vague idea where I kept the book. However, my insticnt had told me that, I had already returned back the book to library. But, why they cant realize it?

I wondered are'nt their fault that they couldn't find the book that had been given back by the students? Im not tend to pinpoint to anyone but it sounds like it was POSSIBLE to happen. Like what had my friend did. He was same as me. But then, he went to library and did check the book whether already returned back or not. And at last, he found it, and certainly it was some things wrong with the library's management!So, he is saved from the "penalty".

How about me? I am still "in danger”. I haven't find the book yet. Probably, it in library. I AM HOPING THAT! Because I really do not want to scarify my allowance to pay for the book. It's damn expensive. Guess how much shall I pay for it? Near RM100!!!Oh GOSH!My allowance for 1 month is proximately will go by half!!!I DONT WANT!!!

Now, what I am looking for is the STORY BOOK. OH MY GOD, PLEASE HELP ME TO FIND OUT THE BOOK. GIVE ME SOME TIPS TO GET OUT THE PROBLEMS. AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE, I BELIEVE YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME.FOREVER AND EVER.

 

MY LOVE

An empty street
An empty house
A hole inside my heart
I'm all alone and the rooms are getting smaller

I wonder how, I wonder why
I wonder where they are
The days we had, the songs we sang together
And oh my love
I'm holding on forever
Reaching for a love that seem so far


So I say a little prayer
And hope my dreams will take me there
Where the skies are blue
To see you once again, my love
Overseas from coast to coast
To find the place I love the most
Where the fields are green
To see you once again, my love

I try to read
I go to work
I'm laughing with my friends
But I can't stop to keep myself from thinking

I wonder how, I wonder why
I wonder where they are
The days we had, the songs we sang together
And oh my love
I'm holding on forever
Reaching for a love that seem so far


To hold you in my arms
To promise you my love
To tell you from the heart
You're all I'm thinking of

I'm reaching for a love seem so far

~ A "SURPRISE" Before Holiday~ ^@^....

It was the holiday that I was waiting for. Even I was kinda of keener wanna went home, but I was the last-survival, who, stayed at damn bored hostel.

4 June 2010,
I couldn't really sleep well last night. Definitely not insomnia, but somehow, felt very strange and weird. I was the only girl, (PPSMP batch), remained. Not to say that I was scared but I admitted that I was not brave enough to stay alone in a room as well as sleeping on my own in a dark condition. I had turned on the lamp for the whole night,until next morning. It should be a nice time for you to sleep and "paid" back for the night time sleep. However, "accident" often come to you without giving your any signs.

5 June 2010,
Finally, I could have my sleep. But, what the H**L??!!!!
Someone was knocking my door when I was indulging with my sleeping time.
Quickly, I woke up and opened the door. I wiped my two sleepy eyes. Guest who was standing in front me???
Our resident college supervisor. I looked at her and she starred at me. A minute later, she talked. She asked me why Im staying here? I explained to her. And finally, she spoke again, "Oh no! You cant stay here.You should move out since Friday."

Then, as a natural response. I had tried to convince her to let me stay there for one more night. But everything is laws. Ha?Law and Rules AGAIN!!!!?????What the heck man!!!!!Haiya, get Chinese proverb says: Law is dead but human is life. Why should we need to obey such rules and regulations??????!!!!! I definitely dont like it man.

I begged her but useless. Then, with full of dissapointment, I immediately called my roomate who is residented at Penampang. I requested her whether I can stay at her house 4 one nite or not? I am glad that I get a roomate like her. She is kinda kind.

Then, that night, I went to her house by bus and stay her house.

6 June 2010
The day that I was looking for. That evening, my roomate and her family sent me to KKIA. The time was 7.15p.m, ready for check-in.

7.30p.m : Flight Departure. (From KK-SIBU)


9:00p.m : Safely landed at SIBU AIRPORT

10:15 p.m : Successfully reached MY BELOVED HOME~~~~^^ HOme SwEEt HOmE~~~WEE~~

*Here, i wpuld like to take this oppurtunity to show my biggest gratitude to my lovely roomate,MONTEL MIAOW MIAOW~~~

*Due to the air traffic problem and poor whether, the time for landing was prolonged. It supposed landed at 8:45p.m. HEhe