Most schools organize some form of extra classes for examination bound students in Form 3 (Year 9), 5 (Year 11) or Upper 6 (Year 13). These extra classes may take various ways. Some may organize after the trial exams by regrouping the students based on the ability and getting different sets of teachers to teach those groups. There are issues on this arrangement as there is a need to revamp the timetable and other non examination classes are affected. Additionally, there will be movements of students into groups and time wasted in these movements. Other forms of extra classes are “teaching to the test” about three months before the examination for the weakest students after school hours. But problems arise in getting the students to attend these classes and slow achievers find the lessons which are geared towards the examinations, too difficult for them to grasp. There is also a problem of class control; some classes are too big for the teachers to handle and when the lessons are held in the afternoon after school, students get tired and agitated during these classes. Many slow achievers lack the foundation to pass the examinations and these lessons are deemed too advanced for them. Teachers might also do remedial during the months leading to the examinations but most of the time, many of the students do not even have the basic fundamentals which should be mastered in their primary schools. There are students who couldn’t even construct proper sentences and there they are in the extra classes preparing them for the SPM (Year 11) public examinations.
The other problem with extra classes is continuity and coordination amongst teachers. All teachers in a subject panel are involved and they take turns to teach. Some have not taught these students before and may not know the ability level of the students.
The school has decided to do away with scheduled extra classes for examination bound students and has instead embarked on a program we called “One Teacher One Child Program”. In this program, all teachers are to “adopt and tutor” at least a child (student), who is amongst the weakest in the school from the beginning of the year. We have 100 teachers and therefore at least 100 of the weakest children are tutored personally for at least one hour per week outside the normal school hours on a day and time decided between teacher and student. The lesson is recorded in the teachers’ record book and checked by the vice principal every week. We believe this program has advantages over other so called “extra classes” as remedial learning starts at the beginning of the year and not after the trial examinations. The other advantage is that each teacher is the counselor/teacher to the child and what problems that the child faces can be resolved with the teacher. Even though this program is for all levels, the students who will benefit most are those from the lower forms as they would be able go through numerous cycles of this one-to-one tutoring. Those at Form 5 and Upper 6 may only benefit for a year and some of the weakest of the weak of this form may be already too late to be rehabilitated, but as the saying goes, “it’s better late than never”.
Tags: curriculum, extra class, remedial, weak students
