I REFER to the article entitled “Hard for younger kids to start school early” (The Star, 22/12/18).

As a retired teacher, I concur that children who have not yet celebrated their sixth birthday but have reached the “mental and reading age of 6”, as required by the Education Ministry for them to enter Standard One, should be enabled to demonstrate this achievement in a simple way and not “disabled” from doing so in a stressful way known as the “saringan”.

The “saringan” is a national standardised test that is stressful, as it is held in only one centre in each state and consists of two stages. If the first written stage is passed, then the children have to be taken to the same centre again for the second stage, an oral interview.   

I had written an appeal to the education minister on behalf of a child born on January 5, 2013, under-aged to enter Standard One with those who celebrate their sixth birthday on January 1, 2019 or have done so earlier in 2018, but who, according to my assessment, has reached the “mental and reading age of 6”.

The parents of this child (fisherman father, housewife mother) had gone to the school to register her, but upon being told about the “saringan” were so upset they did not register her.

In my appeal, I had proposed that she be allowed to sit for the same standardised test that all children entering Standard One take during the first week of school for streaming purposes, i.e. whether to be put in Class A, B, or C.

The same test can double up as an evaluation test for the “under-aged” children. If they pass, then they are of the “mental and reading age of 6”. If they fail, they have to wait till the following year.

Ironically, if a child is 6, and fails the Standard 1 entrance test, he/she still has a place because of the age factor and not because of the child’s “mental and reading age” requirement.

My letter was responded to by the director of Bahagian Pengurusan Sekolah Harian. There wasn’t anything new that I did not already know about the “saringan”, but there was no mention about the case of this child. I sent him an email enquiring about the case of this child and did not receive any response.

What was stated by CAP is correct. The ministry needs to explore ways of doing things more efficiently.

The ministry could take the case of this child as a “test case” (I had proposed this) by letting her take the standardised Standard One entrance test. The result would indicate whether the “saringan” can be done away with and in future all other children born between January 2 to 15 could take this test as a “qualifying test” to assess their “mental and reading age”.

As it is still not too late for one very small step to be taken to test the “mental and reading age” of this child, I once again appeal that she be allowed to sit for the Standard One entrance test that full 6-year olds will be taking. The experience would be useful for the ministry to find out the suitability of this test as opposed to the “saringan” for the good of other children in the future. There will be no complaints if she fails.  

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insight.