KUCHING: Universiti Technologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Minist r y of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development yesterday to develop an objective and holistic instrument to measure the readiness of pre-schoolers to receive formal education in Year 1. The six-month long study with the objectives to identify constructs performance standard suitable for the instrument, to examine the suitability of the constructs and performance standard based on Rasch Model, and to develop a readiness profile of preschools by using the instrument is now being carried out in Kuching and Samarahan divisions and is divided into two phases.
Phase One involves experienced Year 1 Primary school teachers to identify the constructs and performance standard for the instrument, and Phase Two involves pre-schoolers and preschool teachers in which the later are required to observe their pupils readiness and to complete the instrument. The 6 month- long research project to be completed before the end of this year is being conducted by UiTM’s researchers namely Dr. Hwa Tee Yong, Hazizah Binti Julaihi and Chan Ai Nyet.
The project seeks to develop an objective and holistic instrument to measure the readiness of preschoolers to receive formal education in Year 1 based on the 6 pillars of learning (Knowledge, Thinking Skills, Leadership Skills, Bilingual Proficiency, Ethics & Spirituality, and National Identity) of the National Curriculum.
The unavailability of such instrument and unsatisfactory literacy rate of Year 1 pupils for Bahasa Malaysia, English Language and Numeracy called for an urgent need to identify and measure the readiness of preschoolers through a credible instrument. Learning readiness refers to the physical, motor, socio-emotional, behavioural, linguistic, and cognitive skills in a child which indicates the preparedness to receive formal education instruction.
In order to be able to learn easily and cope with the demands of the classroom and life in general, children need to have reached a level of brain and body development that will support their functioning. The stage at which children are thought to be learning ready and so ready to benefit from formal or academic education, usually around the age of 6 or 7 years, is decided by normal mental and physical development. Phase 1 has been successfully carried out and the constructs in the instrument had been finalised and collection of data for Phase 2 is currently on-going. This first interim report on the research was presented at the signing of the MoA yesterday.
Dato Sri Hajah Fatima h Abdullah, Minister of Welfare, Community Well being , Women, Family and Childhood Development said the time frame given for the research to be completed was six months and another three months. “On the Ministry side, we look at this research as very important because under our ministry we have the ear l y childhood education division and we want to ensure what we do at the school level are something that have continuity and what we are doing actually is preparing our children at the preschool level for their further education,” she said.
“It is our duty and responsibility to prepare our children for formal schooling. At the pre-school level is informal schooling through fun learning, games, acting, singing, role play and so on. And so we want to see our children at preschool are school ready or not”, she said.
“With the instrument that we will have, we hope to be able to know whether or not our children at preschool are ready or not to go to the next level,” she said. And if from the study it is found that there are those who are not prepared as the report said, so what should be done, either at the primary school, what could done so that there will be continuity, she said.
She said the study would also be conducted on the teachers as well and their perception whether the children are ready or not. The significance of the research is to develop an objectives, holistic instrument to measure the readiness of the preschools to receive formal education in Year 1 and to come up with suggestions on how to assist the children.
Fatimah said co-curriculum at preschool is different from the cocurrilum at primary 1 and they are totally two different things and one is in a formal setting and the other one (preschool) is informal. At Primary school level it is formal, so there are different situations. And they are also not born at different months. They may be seven years old, but they are born in different months. They are different in terms of mental , social and emotional development, so the level of development of children each individual in the class is different from one person to another.
“So in terms of school readiness we don’t expect them to be the same as some are slow, so we want to have this instrument to enable us to gauge accurately the school readiness of each individual.” UiTM’s Rector Professor Dato Dr Jamil bin Hj Hamali said: “Actually, we are excited especially to see the issues which we want to address, namely the problem of our children or whether they are ready for primary education or not.
“ So this study will look at this matter and hopefully with a leadership from the YB (Dato Fatimah) we can come up with what we should be doing to champion education in Sarawak.” The whole report will be ready before the end of this year and once it is ready it can be used. Ruwix is the best place to learn about the Worlds best selling puzzle toys. Check it out on this link .
