Chinese Schools Essay

Chinese schools have come a long way since the colonial days. Over the years and with the evolution of the national education system, Chinese schools have had to face countless threats to their survival. Despite this, Chinese schools have gained popularity and have enjoyed high enrolments, even among non-Chinese students. It has been reported that at least 10 percent of students studying in Chinese schools come from non-Chinese backgrounds. A number of factors contribute to this growing phenomenon. First, Chinese schoolteachers are well known for their high level of commitment. For this and other reasons, students from Chinese schools often excel in public examinations especially in Science and Mathematics. The other attraction of Chinese schools is that students are required to learn an additional language, Mandarin, which is a highly marketable skill in the job market. Chinese Education: A Historical Perspective The beginnings of Chinese education in Malaysia can be traced to the early nineteenth century. It was recorded that by 1815, there were already three Chinese schools in Malacca. One was founded by the London Missionary Society. With regard to the other two, sociologist Yang Qinghuang suggests that â€Å"at least one would be a school founded by the Hokkien people. † Scholar Zheng Liangshu suggests that some old-type Chinese schools might have existed in the Straits Settlements since the end of the eighteenth century. For a long time, Chinese schools in the Straits Settlements received neither help from the British government nor assistance from the government in China. Despite this, they thrived —funded mainly by clan and dialect associations. When faced with political and financial difficulties at the turn of the twentieth century, the Ching government of China changed its attitude towards overseas Chinese and began to promote Chinese education outside of China. It implemented educational reforms based on a proposal by Zhang Zidong. Following the reforms, the curriculum was revised to include Chinese Classical Literature, History, Geography, Mathematics, Moral Education, Physical Education and other optional subjects like Commerce and Drawing. In Malaya, Chung Hwa Confucian School in Penang not only adopted this new curriculum (it was the first to do so), it went further to include English as a subject. Support from the Ching government, however, was short lived. It ended with the fall of the dynasty. Chinese schools that attempted to run modern educational programmes (with a modern curriculum and incorporating English as a subject) faced enormous challenges. On the one hand, they were constantly in need of more funds. On the other hand, they lacked competent teachers. Furthermore, they had to compete with the more established English schools. Even so, there were five hundred Chinese schools with modern educational programmes established in Malaya and Singapore in 1920. By this time, textbooks for these schools had departed from the classical into the vernacular Chinese language (baihuawen). Because of their impressive growth, the British government decided that it could no longer afford to ignore Chinese schools. On 29 October 1920, it introduced the Regist ration of School Ordinance to restrict the activities of Chinese schools in the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States by way of registration and inspection. In 1935, control was further tightened: textbooks and teachers from China were prohibited. Only local materials and Malaysian-born teachers were allowed, and activities in Chinese schools came under strict scrutiny. Despite these challenges, Chinese education continued to thrive until it was suspended at the time of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya. After the war, Chinese schools resumed operation. By 1946, their number had ballooned to more than one thousand in Malaya. However, following the Barnes and Fenn-Wu Reports (June 1951) and the Education Ordinance 1952, Chinese education was exclude d from the national education system. The Chinese community rallied to form Jiao Zong (United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaya, UCSTAM) and Dong Zong (United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaya, UCSCAN) to safeguard Chinese education. The Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) joined in. Its president then, Tun Tan Cheng Lock spoke these memorable lines, â€Å"†¦Chinese in Malaya †¦ should be given Chinese education †¦ The dialect or mother tongue can be likened to a person’s shadow, and is inseparable from the person himself/herself†¦ † (translated from Chinese). Efforts to safeguard Chinese education became even more difficult following the Razak Report in 1956 and the Education Ordinance in 1957. Thereafter, Chinese primary education was officially included in the national education system, classified as standard-type primary schools with Chinese language as the medium of instruction. However, Chinese secondary schools were excluded from the system when the Lower Certificate of Education examination (L. C. E) was introduced in English. This was not in accordance with the promise of fairness to other ethnic languages in the country as specified in the Razak Report. Furthermore, the Chinese community were horrified by the terms of reference in Paragraph 12 of the Razak Report: â€Å"†¦the ultimate objective of educational policy in this country must be to bring together the children of all races under a national education system in which the national language is the main medium of instruction. † Paragraph 12 was subsequently omitted following strong opposition from the Chinese community headed by Jiao Zong. Both the Rahman Talib Report (1961) and the Education Act (1961) reaffirmed the education policy as stated in the Education Ordinance 1957. Since government financial aid was vital to the survival of Chinese secondary schools, more than half of the 41 Chinese secondary schools then had little choice but to ‘convert’ itself into English medium national type secondary schools. On hindsight, many Chinese view this decision as a big mistake. The remaining 14 schools refused to give in, and have remained ‘independent’ to this day. The MCA facilitated this ‘conversion’ as it was satisfied with the verbal promises made by the Education Minister that â€Å"the government has no intention to exercise its authority granted under the Act to change Chinese primary schools to national schools† and that â€Å"Chinese schools are allowed to allocate one third of their curriculum for learning Mandarin and Chinese literature. † As a consequence of this concession made at the secondary  school level, development of Chinese education in Malaysia was restricted thereafter to the primary school level. The New Education Act 1996 posed an even bigger threat. It threw into question the status of national-type schools that were not established under Section 28 of the new Act. In fact, prior to this during the initial stage of implementing the ‘3R system’ (Reading, Writing & Arithmetic) in 1980, Chinese schools had already been challenged to forgo their medium of instruction. Materials for learning all subjects except Mandarin were available only in Bahasa Melayu. In response, Dong Jiao Zong and various Chinese guilds and associations submitted a memorandum to voice their opposition to the Ministry of Education in 1981. The schools were given the assurance that the government had no intention of changing the character of Chinese schools. However in the ensuing years, Chinese schools were asked to consider the concept of ‘integrated schools’ (1985) and Vision Schools (proposed in 1995, implemented in 2000), in addition to the latest â€Å"2-4-3† resolution that sought to introduce the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (proposed in 2002, implemented in 2003). Despite these challenges, Chinese schools seek to maintain emphasis on the â€Å"Five Aspects of Formal Education in Confucianism (Wuyu Jiaoyu)† namely, moral (de), intellectual (zhi), physical (ti), social (qun ) and aesthetic ( ei) education. Until today, Chinese schools m continue to value discipline, respect for the elderly, courtesy, personal character and morality, rather than marketable skills such as computer literacy, Mathematics and Science. Some Reflections How does the development of Chinese education affect the church community i Malaysia?  n Should we stake our claims to citizenry and defend our right to be educated in our own (mother tongue) language? What about racial integration? Is it possible to promote Chinese education without further polarising the different communities? First, we have a moral basis for defending Chinese education. Being given the choice and having the opportunity to be educated in one’s own language is a universal human right according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. Chinese education ha s existed in this country since the nineteenth century. As such, I believe we ought to defend the right of its existence in the same way as we would for the education of other ethnic communities in their own languages. Second, there is value in the Chinese school culture that is worth speaking up for. Even though outsiders might consider the Chinese community uncompromising in its stand with regard to educational issues, it must be pointed out that it is not just about safeguarding the Chinese language but it is also about retaining the ideals of holistic education. Furthermore, Chinese schools have a tradition of nurturing dedicated schoolteachers, and the Christian community should be at the forefront to encourage this culture of service and excellence. In the past, many of them have had to pay a high price for their conviction and dedication by becoming ‘martyrs’: Zhuang Xiquan, Chen Taomin and others were deported for opposing the Registration of School Ordinance 1920; Lim Lian Geok and Yen Yuan Chang were deprived of citizenship in 1961; Lim Huang Sheng and Sim Mow Yu were jailed under the Internal Security Act in 1987. Chinese education aids evangelistic work among the Chinese community. It provides students with a better understanding of the Chinese culture. Whereas in the past, the content of Chinese education was often influenced by traditional beliefs and practices, the Chinese education system today is more open to intellectual discourse on rethinking and repositioning the Chinese identity. The main grouse against Chinese schools is the lack of racial integration since students come from predominantly one ethnic background. The question we must ask is, is this acceptable or healthy in a multi-ethnic society like Malaysia? Most advocates for Chinese education would argue that it is less than ideal but what choice do they have? If national schools were to adopt a more holistic philosophy, and their teachers showed a more credible record in terms of commitment and disciplining of students, and if they provided students with the opportunity to study their own languages, racial integration would be less of an issue and Chinese students would be more  evenly distributed between national and Chinese schools. Despite this obvious shortcoming related to racial integration, I still advocate Chinese education for what it offers. Clearly, through its holistic philosophy and track record, it has produced many responsible citizens through the years. Chinese education continues to play a significant role in nation-building and church life in Malaysia. Florence Kuek lectures Mandarin at Universiti Teknologi Mara.

We Create Our Own Monsters

Woods 1 Taylor Woods Mrs. Eryes Language Arts 3-4 H 16 October 2012 We Create Our Own Monsters Monsters are different for everyone. Some may think monsters are purple, hairy, one-eyed freaks. Others may think they are atrocious beasts with chain-saws and bloody faces out to kill you! But monsters don’t just have to be a literal thing that we can see and feel. Many monsters are figurative, meaning that it’s not an actual real life monster but are features and characteristics made up of our own fears.Many times the things that make a monster scary are because of the traits we give to them from our own fears. Monsters are creatures of our own imagination that help us deal with and reflect our fears and taboos.. The University of Michigan attempts to define monsters. The way they explain monsters is that they are creatures of our own imagination. James Mitchell describes monsters and says that, â€Å"Cultures create and ascribe meaning to monsters, endowing them with their characteristics derived from their most deep-seeded fears and taboos†.What Mitchell is trying to say is that monsters are made up of our own fears. We create the characteristics of the monster based on our fears and taboos. So, for example, when we are younger we are scared of a monster in our closet and under our beds. So, a monster to a young child would be a hairy, colorful creature like a monster from the movie â€Å"Monsters, Inc. †. But as we grow up we don’t fear that type of monster anymore. We overcome those worries. We are then faced with new problems and fears. For example, many teens fear not being socially accepted and people making fun of them Woods 2 nd bullying them – much like Frankenstein, not because the way he looked, but how he wasn’t accepted by anyone because peopled feared him. Monsters don’t just have to be big and scary creatures. They are also figurative just like in the books The Outsiders and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In the book The Outsiders by S. E. Hilton the monster is â€Å"being alone† because in the book they fear being alone because they could be attacked by the Socs. The Socs were the â€Å"cool† and â€Å"popular† kids. They always have each other’s backs and protect one another from the Socs and everything they fear.After Ponnyboy got beat up in the beginning of the book by the Socs you can tell that they are all there for him, â€Å"Our gang had chased the Socs to their car and heaved rocks at them. † In the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Christopher doesn’t like anything he can’t use logic to figure out such as metaphors, jokes, sarcasm. That’s why he even says in his book, â€Å"This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them. †(Haddon, 8) Christopher fears the unknown and chaos because of his autism.Christopher cannot handle it when there is chaos and people asking too many question, â€Å"He was asking me too many questions and he was asking them too quickly†¦I rolled back onto the lawn and pressed my forehead to the ground again and made the noise that Father calls groaning. † (Haddon, 7) The unknown and chaos are the monsters in this book. Figurative monsters are in all the books even the well-known monster books.. Even most of the classic monsters have figurative monsters in the stories as well. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelly you would think ‘The Monster’ would be the monster.He still is, it’s obvious, he is a massive, atrocious beast. But ‘The Monster’ actually fears being rejected. He has been rejected by so many people because all they see when they see Woods 3 him is his looks and not any of his personality. Just like when he was learning from his neighbors that he was spying on and decided to go to their house and meet them, and they immediately are frightened and do not accept ‘The Monster’ even though he was not there to harm them. He had very good intensions. When people saw him, they just assumed he was out to cause harm.In Beowulf-poet everyone fears Grendel because he wants to kill Beowulf. This makes Grendael the monster of this story. But just like any other story there is a figurative monster as well. The people in this story fear Grendel’s power to kill whoever he wants, thus making the figurative monster power. But overall, the people of this town fear themselves or loved ones being killed which makes their biggest fear, death, just like in most books. In every story, movie, poem or T. V. show there is a monster. Whether it’s just the antagonist or a classic monster, a monster is a monster.You can always find a figurative monster. What most people fear almost always ends up being the figurative monster. Just like in Frankenstein he fears being rejected, in the Outsiders the y fear being on their own and in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Christopher fears the unknown. In all these books they also all fear one thing in common: death. One of the biggest fears to everyone is dying which makes every monster almost have to do with death. As we know, we create our own monster, by having their characteristics come from our fears.Every monster is different and every person has a different view on monsters. Woods 4 Works Cited Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print. Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders,. New York: Viking, 1967. Print. THe Holt Reader: An Interactive Worktext. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, n. d. Print. Sixth Course. Mitchell, James. â€Å"Introductory Essay to Our Exploration of Monstrosity. † University of Michigan. N. p. , n. d. Web. Aug. 2012. . Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1831. Print.

Quality Management Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Quality Management Questions - Assignment Example An organization should understand that quality involves meeting and exceeding dynamic needs of all the groups. For example, the needs of consumers may be met by providing goods and services that are in line with customer’s needs and wants. On the contrary, the needs of external customers may be met by carrying out comprehensive marketing research to identify the specific needs of external customers and look for ways of meeting those needs better. Additionally, the needs of internal customers may be met and exceeded by obtaining feedback from the internal customers and applying the feedback obtained to carry out necessary continuous improvements (Evans & Lindsay, 2011). Edward Deming put forth the fourteen principles of effective quality management. Among the four major Deming philosophies that may be applied to improve learning and performance in the classroom, including the use of training on the job to ensuring that there is continuous improvement throughout the learning process, creation of constant of purpose, education implementation, and self-improvement. The philosophy of training on the job may be employed in the academic environment to ensure that learning and classroom performance has been improved. Learners should be equipped with the foundation knowledge to prepare them for intermediate and advanced areas of knowledge. Further learners should be allowed to form teamwork so that they can learn from each other. For example, learners may be given an opportunity to interact and discuss issues that they had learned in the classroom so that they can help each other to understand concepts that they didn't capture well in the classroom (Blanken ship & Peter, 1999). The second philosophy involves continuous improvement. This philosophy may be employed to improve performance through utilization of various tools in evaluating performance to determine whether there are some improvements.  

Misogynistic portrayals of women in Othello Essay

Misogynistic portrayals of women in Othello - Essay Example In Shakespeares celebrated play Othello we find three women who play vital role. Towards the end of the play we find that only one woman survives. All the three women are deprived of an identity in the play. We find that all the three women are either married or maintaining relationship with a male. During the time when the play was written, women exercised no power in the society. The Venetian society maintained a hierarchy in which men possessed all powers and women were considered inferior to men. In Othello we find Bianca, Emilia, and Desdemona being in relation with the male characters Cassio, Iago and Othello. In those days women were considered as creatures with no intellectual power. However we find that the women characters of the play speak sense throughout the play. Women characters are also found trusting other characters. All the women characters of the play represent a specific social level. Desdemona represents the highest social level and Bianca represents the lowest social level. Each sexual relationship initiates some feeling of jealousy between the couple. Bianca is not frequently found in the play like other characters. However, her presence is crucial in the matter of death of Desdemona and other crucial matters. Iago considers her as a prostitute. Even though she fell in love with Cassio, we never find Cassio acknowledging her affection because of his desire for status. He knew that her social standing would highly influence this matter. She is found to be extremely jealous in this relationship. We find Iago using Bianca’s name to trigger the entire confusion in the play. This finally led to the tragedy end of the play. Regarding Emilia we find that she never questions Iago when she gives handkerchief to him. This shows the women’s ability to trust. However she is also found to be ignorant of the whole story till the end of the play. Her life comes to a sudden end, in the hands of her husband. She

Paper one Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Paper one - Essay Example For me personally I think that the creation story is not really based in fact because there is no proof for any of it. The myth sounds really good and it does provide some kind of explanation for how the world began, but there are so many unanswered questions about it. For example, it has been scientifically proven that the world is billions of years old yet according to the Bible it has only been a few thousand. Something doesnt add up because the difference between these two points of view is rather extreme. I could somewhat believe the Biblical account if it was more in line with what science has proven is real. Another thing that I fail to understand is that global warming is something that is completely dismissed by most Christians. There is no argument for this because evidence shows that the earth is experiencing extreme weather, and this will affect our lives in the future also. It is almost like Christians dont care about the world because they believe that they will go to heaven one day anyway. I can understand that but what they dont realize is that by ignoring the claims of global warming they are making the environment worse for their children and grandchildren. I appreciate the right to free speech, so I am not against Christians for what they believe about the world. I might be attracted more to the religion if it could be modernized and take more of a scientific view of the world. We now live in the 21st century and some things are now fact rather than fiction because they can be proven to be real. Finally, I would say that the Christian world view is becoming less and less popular simply because it has failed to take into account significant changes in our modern society. Nothing lasts forever, but that does not mean that everything about what Christians believe should be thrown away. There are some good things that they believe, yet there are also some things that hold them back. One such example is the

Diachronic Analysis of Poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Diachronic Analysis of Poverty - Essay Example From the 578 documents reviewed in the process of selecting the core definitions of poverty, three broad categories were utilized in the screening of the documents: the main among the had to relate to poverty, secondly, each document had to contain a unique and original definition of poverty, and finally, the authorship to correspond to the key actors involved that is the researcher, donors, government, and NGOs. To uncover the deeper layers of meaning within definitions and changes, the diachronic analysis disaggregated topics, themes, and frames within the definitions. Huckin (2002) states that each definition was first disaggregated into basic component parts or topics, once they were identified they were grouped according to their semantic meaning for example topics such as housing, assets, and clothes were grouped according to material assets or possessions while topics such as food, nutrition, and life expectancy were categorized as physical factors. The definitions varied in t heir length and complexity. Some definitions were formed by a single theme while in more length definitions, the themes were embedded in one another. Â  From the findings, the majority of definitions of poverty were sourced in documents written by development agencies and researchers with fewer non- governmental organizations and national government. One of the reason for this as argued by Edwards and Hulme (1992) reveals that governments and NGOs are largely the implementers of development praxis. Secondly, NGOs and government literature often repeated definitions offered by both researchers and donors, this literature was least original and therefore least represented. Gill (1970) argues that NGOs programmes in the past were more independent and did not mirror donor interests today for example during the 1970s, NGOs were less interested in poverty per se than disaster mitigation and family relief as stated by Gill (1970), Twedt (1998) and Maxwell (2001). Â  

International Political Economy &Islamic Factor of Central Asia Essay

International Political Economy &Islamic Factor of Central Asia - Essay Example For example, Belarus has been able to advance the trade with Central Asia especially larly Kazakhstan. This was made possible by the high integration level within the economy of Russia. On the other hand, Ukraine has been promoted by the Turkmen and Uzbek governments as a way of escaping from the dominance of Russian and as a Europe opening. The Guam (anti-Russssian institution designed for fostering of the strategic) and the economical alliances between Ukraine Georgia Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan is not efficient to alter the regional balance. Besides, the chapter demonstrates a failing in the Caspian unity which included the south Caucasus and Central Asia. The growth in the connectivity and the cooperation of the Central Asia is discussed at length in the chapter. Aspects like the regional leadership Uzbek-Kazakh Competition are also highlighted. In this chapter, the author discussed the structural Agricultural sector trends. In central Asia Kazakhstan is one special case in terms of the level of agriculture. The whole republic was displayed as a key driver of the Soviet development of Agriculture, especially as a result of the Virgin campaign lands that were launched in the year 1954 by the Khrushchev. The campaign of the virgin lands facilitated the Kazakhstan Agriculture to an extent where it made over 20 percent of the whole land. The Kazakh republic made exports worth ten million tons of wheat in 1980. They also made over 300,000 tons of meat whose revenues were made up of a third of the GDP. The other produce were not of great relevance to the Soviet scale despite being relevant on the local level. The southern section of the republic cultivated cotton and rice. To date, the country is in possession of two hundred and twenty two million hectares farmland, most of which is used for pasture. This is about 85 percent of t he