Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak yesterday launched the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025. The government hopes in the next 13 years there will be a complete overhaul and transformation in the education system. There is also going to be particular emphasis on the teaching profession which is going to transformed to a worldclass standard.
Talking about the teaching profession, here’s
a picture from today’s The Sun which shows a teacher feeding raisins to
students before the examinations.
What hope is there for worldclass teachers
when our teachers are engaged in such hocus-pocus. Really, the Ministry of
Education should check on this raisin eating or more popularly known as Kismis
Doa phenomena which is very much prevalent and popular in the Malay community
and in the Sekolah Kebangsaaan’s. We never hear about students in Chinese
schools being given a spoonful of raisins before examination by their school
teachers and we have yet to hear of any Chinese top student ever claiming that
their 9 A’s success was because of eating raisins or kismis doa.
I think there is a big market for this kismis
doa and in most mamak shops and malay restaurants, near the cash till one can
see stacks of kismis doa boxes stacked up. Incidentally there is also usually a
collection box for some tabligh or madrasah next to the kismis doa boxes.
