#wfe4
School was never a happy place for me, especially when I was a child but even throughout my early teen or high school years. I started tertiary schooling at the tender age of 15 and finished university at 18 so I remember school as more of a stressful place where I had to struggle through Math classes and some bullying while growing up as I was painfully thin. The only good thing was that since I fared well at memorising, I got good grades and usually ended up in the honour roll or even the dean’s list in College. This does not mean though that I had optimised schooling and education since I only studied mostly to pass the exams. In other words, what I was really good at was exam-taking. Perhaps the only other good thing was that I loved to read — and I thank my grandfather for that, not the school. Because of this I read beyond what I needed to or what was required at school. I read novels, poetry, comics, the encyclopaedia, the Bible, the newspaper, Readers’ Digest, children’s books, magazines, etc. — which were not related to school at all. All the reading has helped me as a learner since I still continually read a variety of literature, even those that do not pertain to my field — but I think this is not a luxury now in the knowledge economy. Rather, it is a necessity as a teacher and to thrive well in the field of education.
From the discussion on the importance of reflexivity as teachers and Dr. Jane Perryman’s views on how schools need to be more responsive to the needs of their students rather than catering to the priorities of inspecting authorities, I cannot but agree to both. If the teachers I had were more reflective, they would have thought more about how effective their delivery of education was and reformed the program so that students actually value learning rather than grades or just passing exams. Being responsive to students’ needs should be a priority of schools as Dr. Perryman was saying, so that these schools improve student learning and achievement, and not just cater to or go along with the political agenda. Inspecting authorities indeed should not just judge/ evaluate schools then leave without giving any guidance at all as to how these schools should go about improving their system and making it better for the benefit of learners, other education stakeholders, and their entire communities. If there is going to be any notable and beneficial change in the educational system, there has to be a unified and concerted effort from all sectors involved — not only schools themselves, but in collaboration with families, other schools, communities, government and even industry.
