CNY 2013 replacement school day changed

Made us crazy arranging all the hobby classes on Saturday, then rearranging due to the last minute change.

Photo from: http://www.jpnpenang.edu.my/

Takwim Persekolahan 2013

From The Star

The above is news article from The Star about school holidays. Also the official Takwim Persekolahan 2013 from Ministry of Education (MOE). 

LINUS and PBS

From The Star

From The Star

From The Star

These were from The Star. There is just a few words on the PEMANDU website. Not that I understand LINUS yet, but now the MOE are planning for LINUS 2.0. How ironic. LINUS 2.0 has additional English monitoring other than the BM and Maths monitoring in the current LINUS.



From The Star

As for PBS, it's still very abstract to me. My poor children who had to go through the experimentation from MOE. Terrible, they should have official communication via the school to parents to help us prepare the kids for LINUS (1.0, 2.0, 3.0 whatever..) and PBS.

From The Star

Also on English language. They should bring back teaching of Maths and Science in English. The kids which do not take Maths and Science in English will not be able to go for assessment like ICAS. So sad that my kids will miss out on this. I'm all for Maths and Science in English. Otherwise, the concepts are really hard to grasp in higher education level. I'm not trying to belittle mother tongue for Maths and Science, but the benefits are truly valuable for those who go for higher education. This talk going around nowadays about adding English literature is laughable. Imagine, those who cannot even handle normal conversational English language, trying to jump into English literature. Cannot even crawl, trying to walk and even thinking of flying. Think they are geniuses? Even those who are good in English cannot comprehend English literature, what more those who are struggling (^_^)

Sistem Analisis Peperiksaan Sekolah (SAPS)

Photo from: http://saps.moe.gov.my/access-denied.php (not sure why it indicated access denied?)

Photo from: http://saps.moe.gov.my/ibubapa2/index.php

Heard that parents can check their children's grades via this database by MOE. However it's only for Year 3 and above for primary school, and Remove and Form 2 and above for secondary school (I translated directly from the BM info). No idea why is it so selective?

Textbook writer for KSSR Year 4 sought by DBP

Photo: Ad from The Star

I saw this advert in The Star that DBP is looking for writers for the 2014 KSSR textbooks in various subjects. I'm only interested when I see the subjects they are planning to write textbooks for. The list goes like this: BM, English, Arabic, Islamic Studies, Moral Studies, Physical Education, Health, Maths, Science, Information Technology and Communication, Design and Technology, History, Visual Art and Music. Official list given by MOE here. So many subjects compared to my time in primary school and they are preaching about how to reduce school bag weight (must be dreaming with the list of new subjects coming up). Just reduce the subjects! What is the difference between Information Technology and Communication with Design and Technology? Is one ICT and the other engineering related? There are no details as the interested applicants are suppose to follow the standards which are only available to certain people. I

Photo from: http://www.dbp.gov.my/lamandbp/main.php

This list is for SK, so SJK (C) will usually have about the same subjects in Mandarin in addition to BC. So my poor girl will have to study Sejarah when she goes to Year 4 in 2014. Hopefully before that, someone will overturn this poorly made decision to make Year 4 students study Sejarah and the Malaysia constituency. Accusing the young of being unpatriotic is not excuse to burden them with more fact-cramming subject in school. Why not leave the History and Constituency topic to secondary students who can better grasp the concept than pitiful 10-year-olds. Why even in the Year 1 and Year 2 BM textbooks they already insert topics about the PMs and their long distinguished names. Poor parents who try to coach our kids. Even I cannot remember the full names of the PMs with their many titles.

SSPN income tax exemption statement check

From the top of PTPTN website. Taken from PTPTN website: http://www.ptptn.gov.my/web/english/home

Or this section, also taken from PTPTN website.

It's tax season. For those who had deposit into their children's SSPN account in 2011, we can claim a tax deduction. Click on the e-cukai button for the related statement to accompany your tax submission. For those of us who file online, keep the statement for the next 7 years as IRB can audit our documents up to 7 years.

This e-cukai button will appear only near the tax season. I saw it towards end of March 2012.

Baucar Buku 1Malaysia usage extended to 30 April 2012

This is according to news report on TV. Students who received the BB1M are given an extension to use up their vouchers by 30 April 2012, an extension of 1 month. Couldn't find an official news report online yet as that was on TV.

Later, I only found this news from Sin Chew about the extension of BB1M due date.