Teaching Chinese Language: An Uphill Task

In my last entry, I highlighted the various changes and revisions that the MOE has made and put in place to facilitate the learning of Chinese Language. Looking at these, one is justified to feel optimistic about the future of Chinese Language in our schools and among our students. Then again, if one acquaint oneself with the challenges faced by our teachers in executing these changes proposed, one will be hesitant to do so.

The Pressure to Cover the Syllabus 
Teachers are bogged down by the pressure to finish the syllabus.
Classroom teaching tend to be dictated by syllabus, but not student-centric as proposed by the Curriculum Committee.I remember my mentor who was a mother tongue teacher telling me that the teachers feel obigatory the finish the syllabus before exams, because if they do not, parents will complain when their children score unsatisfactory marks.

Essentially, it is disturbing to realise that they are covering the syllabus to silence the parents' complaints. But it lessons are conducted merely for this purpose then it has deviated from the purpose of education ,which is to instill interest and motivation to learn.Rushing through the syllabus is not only dry and boring, but emotionally stressful and distracting to teachers-they are so overwhelmed with the supposed need that they have no energy to plan for something extra or interesting.

The lesson plan is too packed for that.

The Two Problems
1. Schools at times might not be able to execute what the MOE has planned, they are too hand-tied to.

In this case, that is having to juggle between the various activities held in Mother Tongue Week, which are already eating into their lesson times and covering the syllabus with the limited time that they have. Teachers end up not being able to orientate their lessons such that they are student centric, or make them interesting to arouse students' interest.

2. MOE policies might be counter-effective when the stakeholders are not giving their individual support.

The result: school resources are strained, teachers are left feeling exhausted, and students still have to sit through not-so-interesting lessons.

Recognising the Stakeholders and Proposed Solutions 
Stakeholders:
Schools, teachers, students even external vendors/educational agencies and most importantly Parents.

Solutions

(A)Better "instruction and feedback" system.
When instructions and goals are cascading down to individual departments and teachers, it is necessary to give their feedback which should be taken seriously, into consideration for further changes in the prorgamme.

(B) Involving All Stakeholders
All stakeholders should be involved in the execution of any programme
I still think that parents are not made aware of the importance of learning Chinese, in this case in an interesting and stimulating way, should override the chore of covering the syllabus.

Because by nature, language is not like science that can be taught. And there should always be flexibility such as not avoid setting questions that do not cover the syllabus without compromising on the standard of the accessment. Parents should be involved so that they understand both the importance of such programme and tolerate/applaud such flexibility to faciliate learning.


(C)Developing a Mature Sector of Private Educational Agencies
The MOE might want to invest on external vendors to share the administrative work
I think certain policies can be more successful if they are supported by adequate resources, the most important of which being the human resources.


I have first hand experience of how a teacher can be so bogged down by administrative work which they can neither do professionally nor willingly without making sacrifices, resulting in inefficiencies. For example, having to play the role of an art director/choreographer and stage manager all at the same time, for a particular class during MTL week, not forgetting she has to be accountable and responsible for other classes.

I suggest the MOE can develop a mature sector of private educational agencies which can do the job more professionally.Schools can engage them effortlessly to execute a series of activities. Currently the schools can engage certain outside vendors,but they are limited in choice and some programmes are out of sync with the MOE's over-arching aim of the programme. But I believe if they are treated as stake holders and are kept well informed and well-paced with the latest developmental goals from the MOE, they will be able to contribute more.