Students Paid to Pee in School

Extracted this from the Star newspaper:-
A secondary school in Tanjung Malim is charging students 10 sen if they want to use the toilet during “non-recess” periods.

Tanjung Malim PPP division Youth chief S. Steven, whose daughter is studying at SMK Methodist, said the toilets at the school were only “free of charge” during recess.

“It’s ridiculous that students have to pay to use the toilet,” he said, claiming that several parents had voiced their dissatisfaction to him over the matter.

Steven said he had gone to the school to meet its principal P. Yogarajan. “I was told the toilet charges started about two years ago and money collected was to be used to rebuild the toilets,” he said.

When contacted, Yogarajan confirmed the school had such a policy. “The parent-teacher association discussed the idea and gave their consent,” he said. Yogarajan, who said the move was also a good way to deter students from skipping classes, however, declined to reveal how much the school had collected in toilet fees over the past two years.

Recalling my schooling days, I really do need to pee at times during classes and the intention was not to skip classes. And for those students who had the intention, they won't loiter at the toilets as they would be far away from the school by that time.

Firstly, my mom would say that you have to finish all the water in your water tumbler.
Secondly, mom said drink as much water as you can so you won't fall sick and get to eat stuff you like whenever we were out for meals.
Thirdly, mom also said don't hold the pee too long as it would cause sickness (childhood paranoia?).

But this school principal came from another school of taught. Why was the school obtaining funds to rebuild a toilet throught students (even though it was only 10 cents) instead of applying to the Ministry of Education if there was such a neeed.
Tags: Pee, Wee Wee, School Toilet, Tanjung Malim, Parent-Teacher Association

Why Is It Not ‘New Year Eve’?

Why New Year’s Eve and not New Year Eve, when it is Christmas Eve and not Christmas’s Eve? There must be other comparative examples.
– I. Ho

I really have no idea why! The answer must lie in traditional usage. Indeed there are other examples of the use of the apostrophe ‘s’ after some words, but not after other seemingly similar words. Here are some of them:-

We can say “a summer’s day” as well as “a summer day” and we can say “a winter’s day” as well as “a winter day”, but we can’t say “a spring’s day” or “an autumn’s day” – always “a spring day” or “an autumn day.

But, we always say “Midsummer Day” without the apostrophe ‘s’. “Day”, in all the above cases, can be substituted by eve, morning, afternoon, evening and night.

As for other festival days, religious or secular, it is Easter Day (or Easter Sunday), May Day, but St Patrick’s Day, St Valentine’s Day, and April Fool’s Day.

The general rule about using apostrophe ‘s’ to indicate possession is that we use it only for animate beings and phrases closely associated with animate beings like “Malaysia’s inhabitants” but not “Malaysia’s roads”. So I can understand the reason for “St Patrick’s Day” and “St Valentine’s Day”: but how can “summer” and “winter” be considered animate when “spring” and “autumn” are not?

We may be dealing with some of the many exceptions to the rule!

By Fadzilah Amin
Mind Our English, Star
Tags: English Language, Mind Our English, Weird

World's Higher Education's Ranking

It has been quite some time I last heard absurdity coming out from the mouth of a full-fledged parliamentary Minister. This time it's Deputy Education Minister Datuk Hon Choon Kim.

It has been noted that this round not a single Malaysian university was listed in the year 2007's edition of the Top 200 Universities as published by Times Higher Education Supplement, compared to the year 2006's listing where Malaysia still has two universities in the Top 200.

The Malaysian government, in response to various worldwide publications that sort of downgrade ratings related to the country of Malaysia, was always keen to say that this publication was not recognised or that their records relied on was not up todate or that those measurement / weightage adopted didn't take into account of many related issues.

Well, this time the Deputy Minister of the Education Ministry didn't mention any of the above. Was glad that they have changed but not for the better. Reasons given this time (I almost fainted):-

* quality of the institutions has not dropped BUT because foreign universities are moving ahead too fast; and

* likened Malaysia to the hare in the Tortoise and the Hare story where the hare (Malaysia) is taking a nap now and those tortoise (universities that lagged behind when one of the Malaysian university was amongst the Top 100) has caught up and went ahead to win.

I noticed that in many occasions, the Malaysian government would not say that they will study the reasons or to arrest the situation for the drop in rankings but rather gave thousands of reasons to the public to defend the drop. Weird isn't it?

When I surfed the Ministry of Education's website, there was nothing about this World University Rankings 2007.
Tags: Education, University, Higher Education, Ministry of Education, World University Rankings 2007, Top 200 Universities, Times Higher Education Supplement, THES, Datuk Hon Choon Kim, Malaysia, Tortoise And Hare Story

Hardest Chinese Characters

I have been made known that I'm a banana man due to me being a chinese but yet do not know how to read / write chinese characters. Though I knew those really simple ones, it wouldn't have helped. Can't blame me as from young, my dad spoke to me in english language and I was sent to a malay language school all the way (in primary and secondary).

When I came across this ranking of the hardest chinese characters, I almost fainted by the number of complicated strokes just for a single character:-

"Exorcism""Noodle"
"Oneness"

Tags: Hardest Chinese Characters, Chinese Words, Hardest, Banana Man

Student Blogger Exposed Cheats

As reported in the local Star newspaper:-

A young blogger caused a storm in her school after she wrote that some fellow students had exchanged notes during a recent examination. The Form Four girl said the copycats were unfair to others, adding that those who cheated eventually scored high marks while those who did not, got low grades.

She further claimed that the teachers who knew what was going on during the examination deliberately ignored the incident. Her grouses prompted the school authorities to order her to remove her entry in the blog.

A schoolmate of the 16-year-old girl said she broke down and felt she had been victimised merely because she wanted justice to prevail. The friend said the blogger had named the alleged copycat students and the teachers, and this had probably upset the school authorities.

It is learnt that the matter came to light when the named students told their parents about the blog entry. The parents then went to the school, demanding action against the young blogger.

“The school authorities called her up for questioning and asked her to remove the entry in front of them. “They told her what she did would damage the image of the school and the students,” said the girl’s friend.

The school’s senior assistant, Adilayah Ramli, said they did not mean to punish the young blogger or victimise her. “We asked her to remove the entry from the blog as it was slanderous and damaging to the teachers and students who were named.

“She is a good student and she scored straight As in her PMR exam last year. We understand her frustration,” Adilayah said, adding that the postings were mere allegations. However, she said the school was investigating the girl’s claims and would seek an explanation from those named in the blog. “We want to know their side of the story before resorting to any action.”
------------------------------------

What would you have done if you were the young blogger's parents? If you were the blogger, would you make your stand in what you have blogged? (bearing in mind legal suits may arise)

It would be considered slanderous if no other students dare to stand up for this young blogger. Since students were not allowed to bring mobile camera phones to school, they can't take a picture or video shoot to proof the situation. This student is known as a 'Whistleblower' by putting up that blog posting.

In other words - "don't voice out if you see injustice, keep it to yourself because it's not worth the effort and worse still, you will be known as a person who wants to stir up a peaceful situation."

If this is being taught and made known to students, that would be their mentality when they go out to work and their social life would be shaped according to their previous experience.
Tags: Student Blogger, School Authorities, Education, Exam Cheats, Copycat, Whistleblower

Heard of the Sumatran Rhinos Rescue Project?

Sumatran Rhinos - part of the rhinoceros family also known as lesser two-horned rhino, hairy rhino; with a scientific name of Rhinoceros sumatrensis.

Today Honda Malaysia, as part of their community project, joined hands with WWF Malaysia (of course not the World Wrestling Federation), to start the "Save the Sumatran Rhino Project" in view of the decreasing surviving numbers (less than 300 left) of the Sumatran Rhinos which are only found in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Bloggers in the Nuffnang Community are giving back their time by contributing to this rescue project by raising awareness for such Sumatran Rhinos and highlight the Save the Sumatran Rhino Project.

We have to thank Honda Malaysia for their RM5.0 million (US$2.86 million) contribution for the next 5 years to help WWF-Malaysia by increasing forest patrol, purchasing vehicles/equipment, conducting surveys and further research and proper gazettement of forest to protect the animals' habitat.

Want to thank Honda Malaysia for placing their advertisement in my blog.
Tags: Sumatran Rhinos, Honda, Honda Malaysia, The Power of Dreams, World Wildlife Fund, WWF, WWF-Malaysia, Save the Sumatran Rhino Project, Nuffnang

Benefits of Night Classes

Ah Beng went to take night courses with the reasoning in future can get promotion or better job. During work, Ah Beng likes to show off to Ah Seng about his knowledge.

Ah Beng: Ah Seng ah... I've been taking night courses for 3 months already, next week is the exam.

• Ah Seng: Oh... Good luck ah.
• Then Ah Beng started show off...
• Ah Beng: Ok, I test you, who is Graham Bell?
• Ah Seng: Don't know
• Ah Beng: He is the inventor of phone la... in 1876, see... if you take night courses, you would know this.
• Ah Seng: ........................ *speechless*

The next day, Ah Beng shows off again...

• Ah Beng: Ah Seng ah... let me ask you, who is Jean Jacques Rousseau?
• Ah Seng: Wash your toilet one ah?
• Ah Beng: No! He's the author of "Confessions", nah nah nah... told you already, if you take night courses, you would know this.
• Ah Seng: ......................... *speechless + frustrated*

The next day, once again...

• Ah Beng: Do you know who is Alexander Dumas?
• Ah Seng: Your gay partner?
• Ah Beng: Choiii!!! If you don't know don't simply answer la. He's the author of "The 3 Musketeers", if you take night courses, you would know this.
• Ah Seng: ....................... *speechless + frustrated + irritated

This time Ah Seng cannot tahan (stand) anymore and ask Ah Beng...

• Ah Seng: Eh... Do you know who is Ah Kaw?
• Ah Beng: Errrr... No!
• Ah Seng: He's the guy sleeping with your wife!! If you stop night courses, you would know this!!
• Ah Beng: ........................ *fainted*

Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humour, Night Class, Graham Bell, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Alexander Dumas, Ah Beng

Mandarin - Chinese Language

In Malaysia, we can read lots of issues involving the Chinese Language schools. It's always about lack of chinese language medium schools or insufficient fundings for such schools. Some of this schools are privately owned or a semi-government sponsored.

Opposition MPs will create a pandemonium in the parliament whenever such schools were overlooked in the annual budget or Ministry of Education's plannings. The present government would either keep quiet or state that they have done this or that in response to those outcry.

Not surprisingly, our previous invaders where we have gotten independence from i.e. Britain has embarked and acknowledge the strength and future of Mandarin, the Chinese Language. The same is happening in USA too where even primary schoolchildren are being exposed to the Chinese Language.

Just look at the statistics pertaining to the Chinese Language in Britain:-
* 27% rise this year in pupils sitting the version of the GCSE (SPM equivalent)
* 1st stage of the new Asset Languages qualifications system, where entries have gone up 900%
* few independent schools, among them Wellington College and Brighton College, have attracted headlines by making Chinese a compulsory subject for new entrants
* 400 state schools in the country where some Chinese is taught
* Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which works closely with the government and represents more than 85 per cent of secondary schools, has signed an agreement with the Chinese government to bring teachers from China to help in British classrooms

United Kingdom could see the future and that's why they are a powerful country in terms of economics & financial. They see the needs and implement it fast enough wherelse in Malaysia the Chinese Language could be taken as a racial issue. See how backwards my country could be at times.

On 31 Aug, Malaysia would be celebrating its 50th year of independence. Are we just celebrating that we are free from British colonial rules OR should we look at how high can we achieve after all these years.
Tags: Chinese Language, Mandarin, United Kingdom, British, Britain, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust

University Entrance & Greetings

The new intake for the year 2007/2008 in Malaysia's university is just right around the corner. Students are now getting information on which degree course are being made available to them. Some found out that their top choices have been disregarded despite having high grades.

This dilemma is a yearly affair where those with good STPM results are denied their degree course of their choice (as made in application). The Higher Education Ministry in various states would be deluged by students/parents making their pleas/appeals.

Sometimes I really wonder how the Higher Education Ministry assess those applications. Is there something else behind those assessment, like unwritten/hidden rules, unknown to the public at large. In the next few days, we'll get to see newspapers' reports highlighting such sad situation hitting top students in the country.

Just when some of those who got their choice of degree course, they may not have prepared themselves for what will happen in the university. It's RAGGING. This ragging word has a nicer name now which is called ORIENTATION but actions behind that word were still the same.

I took up a professional course so I didn't have the chance to experience local university life....want to know why I took up a professional course instead of STPM? Most of you would know even if I don't tell you......not my own doing of course.

I have heard of ragging which was fun and laugther would fill the room or hall. Some seniors took it personally as a revenge. Just passing on what they have experienced when they were freshies. Fights would erupt. Threats would arose. Subsequent torturing life in the campus made worse if you had fought against the raggings. The Higher Education Ministry, as usual, is just waiting for a dead body before they will take any actions. As highlighted in a letter to The Star Editor, the fears created in the freshies' mind were so bad that many suffered in silence.

Why did they suffer in silence? For fear of further humiliation and losing their place in the university if such situation was made known to the press/public. The writer has a name for such seniors - sadistic.

Such ragging is not only found in local universities but also in military schools or army camps. What are such seniors trying to show? That they are macho? A year older? More brains?
Tags: University Entrance, STPM, Higher Education Ministry, Ragging, Orientation, Education, University

Comprehension - My Family

This is a malay language comprehension homework passed up to the class teacher. The humourous side is best read in its original written language.


Translated version:
My Family
Everyone in this world has a family. The word Keluarga is family in white skinned people's language. Family has father, mother, elder brother, elder sister, younger siblings, grandma, grandad, uncle, auntie and etc etc.

For the first time I would like to tell everyone in this world that having a peaceful family and doesn't go to war but there are also some that has no peace because having war.

I would like to tell a story about my family. I have a mother and a father but my mother had said she has slept with 3 other men in hotel hence it's confirmed that I was born out of wedlock as my blood group is different from my father who is in this house. My dad doesn't care when my mother went out with another guy.

Elder sister and brother do not go to school anymore because they have stopped. My elder sister is beautiful with a similar face of Marilyn Monroe who is dead. She died because knocked into grandad's car which has an engine capacity of 500cc. (teacher put a remark that this para was out of topic)

My elder brother is handsome or smart like Amitabh Bachan or Sunjay Dutt, sometimes his face changed to Aacapan when he woke up from his sleep. When he finished bathing, his face would be himself. That's my elder brother's advantageous.

Further to this, I would like to talk about my younger siblings. Even though I do not have younger siblings but I bluffed you saying that I have younger siblings.

That's all for now about my family a happy one even though not. Regards.

Yours sincerely:-
Bob
Tags: Education, Malay Language, Comprehension, Karangan, Funny, Humour, My Family

PSD Scholarships

Scholarships: PSD must tell students why they were left out
Being the third best student in Penang (12 1As) and among the top 100 scorers in Malaysia, I find it absurd that the Public Service Department has rejected my application for a scholarship.
Being active in extra-curricular activities and topping exams regularly in my school, which is one of the country’s premier schools, the least I deserve from the PSD is an explanation. I am a school tennis player, vice-president of my school’s Red Cross Society and, for your information, I even received an award from the king for my contribution to society. I am also a school prefect and a committee member of clubs in my school. It was a real surprise for me to find out that individuals whose results were no better than mine and who hardly had any extra-curricular achievements received the scholarship.
BENJAMIN LIM, Penang

Scholarships: It’s not fair
I finished my SPM examination last year. I am an ex-student of Methodist Girls School, Ipoh. Recently, I applied for the PSD scholarship, but sadly, PSD rejected my application. I am one of the top scorers in my school since I got 10 1As in my examination. I even scored an A1 for my GCE-O (1119). I was an active student in terms of co-curricular activities.I meet all the requirements underlined by PSD. In fact, I have the maximum requirement. I am 100 per cent confident that I did very well during my interview. I didn’t even get the university of my choice in the Unit Pusat Universiti application. What went wrong? What upsets me most is that there are students who didn’t even score straight As in their SPM examination but still get scholarship offers. I rang the PSD hotline to seek an explanation but the officers failed to give me a satisfactory answer. It was frustrating for me when I realised that the only option I had was to go for matriculation. I have appealed for the scholarship and I hope the PSD will give it due consideration. It proves that no matter how good you are, there is a possibility that you might not get what you have worked for.
S.A.K., Ipoh

I think I know the answer for the above 2 applicants. Maybe they should ask their parents or relatives, surely someone will also know what I know.
Reading: Malaysia 2007 - export brains, import brawns

Tags: PSD, Public Service Department, Scholarship, School, Unit Pusat Universiti, SPM

Comment on Mission Schools

Received this comment from an Old Boy (1953-1960) of St Patrick. The whole comment has been pasted here in verbatim for your reading:-

Johnny,
You have left out perhaps the top leading mission school in Malaysia, i.e St Xavier's Institution in Penang. Despite all the moves by the govt to "end the role" of mission schools over the past 30 years, St Xavier's has still been able to preserve its missionary identity. The others, especially mission schools in smaller towns, have all but been converted to national (read Malay) schools and it is very sad.

I am a product from St Patrick's school, in Kulim, Kedah in the 1950s. St Patrick's was a satellite school of St Xavier's. It had a primary, a secondary and a private within its modest premises. I remember St Xavier's sent their Christian brothers, Brother Bernard an Irishman, and later Brother Edward, a Chinese,to be its principal for the secondary school. The principal of the primary school was Mr Auyong Teik Yoon while Mr Lim Thean Poh headed the private school.

St Patrick's was a small school during my time, its enrolment not exceeding 300 students. Like all mission schools,it was partially assisted, meaning that most of the time, the school had to depend on private donations from well wishers to survive. Most of the teachers were normal college trained or from Kirkby and Brinsford, and among them of us could fondly remember the late Mr Chin Kong Gooi, the late Mr Douglas Scully and Mr Johnny Thoo. Standards were high in the then English medium of education, and many of the students did the school proud by performing very well in their Lower Certificate Education (LCE) and Overseas School Certificate (SC) examinations, chalking up a string of As in their results. It was truly meritocracy at its best.

The Christian brothers as well as our teachers not only taught us to be good academically, but also imbibed in us good moral values so that many of us could be good citizens of the then Malaya and from 1963, Malaysia. Which many of us did and were proud, at least up to 13 May 1969.

The racial riots of that year in KL, and the subsequent change in educational policy from 1970 which abolished English medium schools, badly affected all mission schools in the country, including St Patricks. It was a blow they were never to recover from and which explains the pathetic state of affairs most of them are in today.

The Education Ministry soon came to control the school's administration which meant that it deployed teachers and students over the years, deploying a lot of Malay bureaucrats and teachers who had no tradition of mission schools and did not understand their needs and the way they were developing. Slowly but surely the character of the school was changed beginning with the switch in the medium of instruction from English to Malay. Over the years, the school lost its missionary identity and today (2007), the school has all the characteristics of a Malay school, with its principal being a Malay, its admin staff being overwhelmingly Malay as well as its students, right down to the office boy. The school had set up corner as a Malay prayer house, a thing unheard of in a Christian brother's school in those days. The only thing that reminds me and others of the school today, is still its name, St Patrick's school or Sek Menengah St Patrick, which strangely has not been changed.

I left the school in 1960 after completing my LCE and went on to further my studies in other schools, colleges and eventually the university.

I am presently working in Singapore, but each time I return to Kulim, and casually dropped in at my old alma mater, I feel a deep sense of shock and disappointment, disappointed that I cannot rekindle the old boy spirit, because the school is not what it used to be. Save for its name, it is an entirely different school altogether. It might as well choose a Malay name and its transformation into a Malay school would have been complete.

Old Boy (1953-1960)
Tags: St Xavier's Institution, St Patrick, Mission School, Education, Missionary, Kulim, Kedah, National School, Malay

Christian Council Wants Mission Schools Revived

Several Christian leaders in the country have proposed a revival of mission schools. The reason - to arrest the declining education standards. The group of leaders, at a recent congregation in Johor of non-Catholic sects, agreed that current education policies are out of step with reality and have resulted in jobless graduates. "We want to bring back the good old days," Prof Dr Tarcisius Chin told a gathering of over 50 leaders at the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) 12th triennial general assembly held at Pulai Springs on Tuesday.

Representatives from Peninsular-based Anglican, Protestant, Methodist and Lutheran churches were in attendance. "We should take a serious look into the revival of mission schools, considering the decline of education standards," said the former chief executive officer of De La Salle Institute. Tarcisius, also a former Universiti Malaya academician, said the proposed mission-style schools would not preach Christianity to its students. He said the schools would emphasis character development and extra-curricular activities. Such schools would be funded by a congregation of several non-Catholic sects.

'Go back to basics'
The schools will accept students from all races and religions and subjects will be taught mainly in English, but with emphasis on learning second languages such as Mandarin, Tamil or Arabic. He said the current model for development students has been largely inherited from the "colonial days" and "adjusted from time to time to national requirement." "Twenty years ago, nationalism affected the education policies with the abandonment of English as a medium." "Now while the world has moved on and new educational models have been introduced elsewhere, our educational paradigm is still focussed on producing graduates with specialised academic knowledge ... this needs to be reviewed," he said.

Since 2003, English is used as a medium of teaching in science subjects. Tarcicus said a revival of mission schools is "to go back to basics" and bring about a curriculum change that "will create the all-round personality". "Over the past 35 years, education has moved from holistic development to the acquisition of paper qualifications." "The mission schools of yore were concerned not only with delivering academic success but, more importantly, developing character and imbibing universal values," he said.

Funding a problem
Tarcisius said a move in education will demand a radical shift in education strategies, policies and processes from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education. During the ensuing question session, several representatives expressed doubt over how such a proposal can be approved by the government. Tarcisius said such a model might not be rejected as senior members of the cabinet include Christians and "Muslims who are sympathetic".

One bishop pointed out that devoid of being able to preach Christianity, the mission-style school would be little different from national or 'vision' schools. He also pointed out that the biggest problem of such a mission school was obtaining funds. There is currently no discretion for schools or universities to act independently of the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education. To encourage integration among the multi-racial, multi-religious students, the government is attempting to establish 'vision' schools, where facilities of several national schools are shared.

One of the enduring legacies of the colonial era, at least 800 mission schools and convents were established throughout Malaysia since the early 19th century. Mission schools were largely responsible for educating the masses in English and spreading Christianity. However, the schools were also noted for its frequent practice of corporal punishment; the caning of students in particular.

Some of the top mission schools, such as La Salle, St John's Institution, Victoria Institution, are considered leading educational institutions in the country. By the 1970s, the administrative powers of the brothers and nuns were removed in a nationalistic push to reduce the independence of the schools. (source: Malaysiakini)
Tags: Christian Council of Malaysia, Education, Mission School, Vision School, Tarcisius Chin, School, Anglican, Protestant, Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, La Salle, St John's Institution, Victoria Institution, Christianity

Chinese Mathematics

In order to gain entry into universities as a science undergraduate, UK universities will be having entrance mathematics examination based on China's national test on advanced mathematics. How hard is it? (source: BBC News)

The UK's Royal Society of Chemistry has offered a £500 prize to one lucky but bright person who can answer the questions below correctly:-

As for Engineering undergraduates, you could see Logarithmic on sinusoidal motion:-

Tags: Mathematics, Advanced Mathematics, UK, United Kingdom, Univeristy, Exam, Royal Society of Chemistry, Engineering, Sinusoidal Motion, China

Football Studies

A local college, Cyberlynx International College, has started a new course that will help you to graduate with a BA (Hons) Football Studies. The course will get you to be familiarised with the following:-

* basis of FIFA rules & regulation

* individual-player skills / styles

* art of football management through economics, law & marketing

Duration of this course is 3 years (either through full or part time). This course is being taught in collaboration with its partner university, University of Bedfordshire of United Kingdom. Under the UK's syllabus, the area of study includes:-

* Football and society

* The football business

* Football and the Media

* Introduction to football coaching skills

* Sports fans

* Teaching and coaching

* Sport development

* Issues in football

* Sports injuries

* Advanced fitness assessment

* Leisure and sport management

* Developing coaching study and skills

Not bad. Would have applied for this course if it was available during my time. Definitely no problem for the football topics.

Tags: Education, Football Studies, Cyberlynx International College, University of Bedfordshire, Football Management

Double Standard?

The Malaysian Education Ministry has handed out RM1.409 million to 248 chinese schools for the year 2006, the highest handout since year 2001. The money was used for school refurbishment and extension projects. That figure worked to about RM5,682.00 per chinese school throughout the whole of Malaysia. (source: 7 Mar 07, The Star)

On the other hand, a single school in Penang, High School Bukit Mertajam, has been allocated a staggering development fund of RM20.0 million that will be used for construction of a hostel, teachers' quarters, a sports pavilion and a laboratory. Bear in mind that this development fund itself was specially allocated under the 9th Malaysian Plan. How privilege! (source: 19 Jan 07, The Star)

How did a development fund for a single school made it into the 9th Malaysian Plan wherelse funding for any chinese or tamil schools have not been specifically mentioned. Am I being picky here? Such practise is really double standard or pure discrimination does exist straight at your face.
Tags: Education Ministry, Malaysia, Chinese School, 9th Malaysian Plan, High School Bukit Mertajam, Discrimination, Double Standard, School

Why Didn't They Teach Us Maths Like This?

A Jamaican man wants a job, but the foreman won't hire him until he passes a little math test. Here is your first question, the foreman said, "Without using numbers, represent the number 9." "Without numbers?" The Jamaican says, "Dat is easy." And proceeds to draw three trees. "What's this?" the boss asks "Ave you got no brain? Tree and tree and tree make nine," says the Jamaican. "Fair enough," says the boss.

"Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99." The Jamaican stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. "Here you go." The boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to represent 99?" "Each of da trees is dirty now. So, it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Dat is 99."

The boss is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire this Jamaican, so he says, "All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100." The Jamaican stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, "Ere you go. One hundred." The boss looks at the attempt. "You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!" The Jamaican leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, "A little dog come along and crap by each tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, which makes one hundred."

"So, when I start?"
Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humor, Maths

Sexy Education at University of Toronto

An undergraduate program at Canada's University of Toronto offers discussions on flogging, restraint and role-play. But teachers and students insist it's a serious academic program that isn't simply about sex. The Sexual Diversity Studies program, one of the largest of its kind in North America.

The program promises an academic approach to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual issues -- from history and law to the performance of sadomasochism. There are plans for Canada's first undergraduate major in sexual diversity studies, and for master's and doctorate programs from 2008.

The program includes a drama course called "Sexual Performance: Case Studies in S/M (sadomasochism)" and the arts and literature course "Queerly Canadian," for which one student wrote an in-depth review of a male strip show.

But it also focuses on traditional academic discussion -- from Plato to same-sex marriage, with courses like "Theories of Sexuality" and "Sexual Diversity Politics." Canadian provinces were the first jurisdictions in North America to legalise gay marriage -- and Toronto, with one of the largest gay and lesbian communities in the world, is a perfect backdrop for such a program, the university commented.

Very open-minded society indeed!!!

Tags: Sexy, Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Sexual Diversity Studies, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Heterosexual, Sexual Performance, Sadomasochism

UKM ahead of UM

If you fret over not getting into Universiti Malaya (UM) but was offered a course in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), don't worry as UKM is ranked higher than UM now in the a Times Higher Education Supplement.
In World University Rankings 2006 published by the Times Higher Education Supplement and conducted by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, UKM rose by 105 places to break into the top 200-ranked universities for the first time, climbing from 289 last year to 185.

UM, however, continued its downward spiral, by dropping a further 23 places to 192. Its ranking fell from 89 in 2004 to 169 last year, causing a national debate on the status of the premier university and the validity of the criteria used for the rankings.

Education Ministry heads are only interested in politics/racial remarks/race discrimination and not the well being or improvements of varsity students. If this goes on, sad to say, whatever is being produced by Malaysian universities will also reflect Malaysia's future in time to come.
Tags: Education, Universiti Malaya, UM, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM, World University Rankings 2006, Times Higher Education Supplement, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, Education Ministry, University, Malaysia

Why Is The Teaching Profession Stressful?

See whether you can solve the mathematics as below:-


Tags: Maths, Mathematics, Funny, Humour, Education