Tesco milk powder promotion (23 February - 7 March 2012)

 

Screen shot of Tesco catalogue 23 February - 7 March 2012

This is supposed to be a promotion from Tesco Malaysia's catalogue valid from 23 February - 7 March 2012. Not sure if they are so good to honour the prices until really 7 March 2012 and if stock is still available. We manage to get our children's milk powder last week which is about 3% cheaper than Giant's price. So in order to remember the promotion, I screen shot this particular catalogue page. The promotion is part of Tesco's Dunia Si Manja promotion.

Photo from: http://www.tesco.com.my/index.aspx?LID=1

SPM registration for private candidates

Photo of - Classified in the Star 27 February 2012

Typically fifth-formers will register for SPM via their school. Probably there are candidates who are under different circumstances need to register private candidate.

Saw ad from The Star that private candidates (? in BM is "calon persendirian") can start to register for 2012 SPM from 1 to 31 March 2012. Details to refer http://www.moe.gov.my/lp. However I don't find any details at this website. Maybe I'm not good in navigating this website. Probably go to the nearest state JPN (Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri) to enquire if not sure.

Teachers burdened with data entry

Sinchew reported on teachers burden being looked into: http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/237543?tid=1 High time!

Why did it got my attention? It's because a few weeks ago, little princess gave us a form to amend. It's the student personal particulars we filled last year. She told us to just amend with pen. Then a couple weeks later, she came back with another form to be filled by parents. It's again student's personal particulars in a different format! Pity the teacher who has to do data entry for these details. Hope they will have administrative assistants to help out but seems like the teachers are doing this job for the students.

Form 6 program revamp - will be in 3 semesters

Read news that the Education department just try to make Form 6 more appealing. The news is in Mandarin from Sin Chew: http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/237419?tid=1

They are divvying up the 1.5 year program (of course they didn’t count when you need to wait for results) into 3 semesters. This new idea will be first implemented for those students who will start Form 6 in 2012. The 6^th Formers will now be tested with what they learnt each semester instead of a do-or-die exam at the end. University entrance will be based on average marks for the 3 semesters.

Will it be more attractive to get more students to join Form 6? Personal opinion is not likely. Those who will take Form 6 will continue to do so. Those who didn’t choose it will not. For the problem is not only the exam. It’s the syllabus is not work-place friendly, it doesn’t do anything for those with STPM certificate. What does it say except it’s in the transition between high school and university. STPM is equivalent to A-Levels which Singaporeans and British are doing at earlier age than Malaysians.

It’s not a professional diploma where you can get out and bang on doors for employment after completing studies. My children, most probably will not take STPM. I went through this path, due to family limitation. However even how limited we are, we will send the children to college, TARC or local college and do a program they are interested. Being too studious in nature, the STPM is no longer appealing except the ones who has the confidence to ‘gamble’. After all, results which are average in STPM will get you nowhere. But if you have at least a diploma, there is still a chance of getting employed (still possible? Or unlikely in this time?). Shows employers you are serious in the chosen field with more emphasis on real-life application, you know.

Golden Student or Pelajar Emas program by Penang state

After annoucement of Penang state student aid last year, there was not much news. It looked like parents had to register at their local representative office? But the following news share that the Penang state government is trying to get help from the state Education department.

Report in The Sun: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/292452
Report in The Star: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2012/2/18/north/10722984&sec=North

The Penang state student aid is for Year 1, Year 4, Form 1 and Form 4 students from 2012. My earlier blog post about it here: http://mychildrenstuff.blogspot.com/2011/10/penang-to-give-rm100-to-students-for.html

TV9 will be showing Pink Panther next week on 11 February 2012

But I'm not sure which one as there are 2 movies. It will be at 10pm at the Movie Night slot.

Herbie Fully Loaded on TV9

Photo from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400497/ This is the official poster

The children enjoyed this movie shown on TV9. It's about a Beetle car which has a mind of its own. Very funny most of the time. Even though some of the scenes do not make sense, it is still funny (^o^) More about the movie here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400497/ and the official webpage: http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/herbie-fully-loaded.html

Traffic jams expected for the long weekend holiday in Penang

Seeing this news in The Star scared me to bits. I hated traffic jams and this news is scary. Hopefully we're not stuck anywhere for too long. Looks like we might not be going far from home this weekend. Might as well let the children rest and get back to health too instead of running around.

The Chinese New Year Cultural and Heritage Celebration was just held 29 January 2012 attracted a big crowd as well. Heard of the jams and crowd. We might visit another year when the children are older and stronger to make the walks (^_^).