I HEARD about the heavy school bag dilemma ages ago but never gave much thought to it because the so-called “problem” was just too simple to solve.

As years passed and still no one has stepped up to offer a solution, I thought… come on… the solutions are so obvious.

Apparently, obvious solutions do not come very well with the civil service as well as the political leadership in the Education Ministry. What can you expect when almost half of the electorate voted for a leader who stashed RM2.6 billion in accounts and under the pillows of his apartment.

Anyway, not to digress too much in a country where the people do not believe in the Council of Professors, the following are my 3 sen worth of ideas for three simple and, to me, obvious solution to the heavy school bag conundrum.

Have only 3 subject periods a day

I recommend that for each school day, pupils be subjected to only a maximum of three subject periods of 90 minutes each totalling then 4½ hours of studying.

After each 90-minute period, pupils have a 30-minute free period, thus totalling two 30-minute free periods a day.

Thus, the total school day consists of the first 90-minute period, the first 30-minute free period, the second 90-minute period, followed by the second 30-minute free period and finally the third 90-minute period.

Now you might ask why 90-minute period? Well, to me it is easier for the teacher to introduce a new topic for 20 minutes, then let the pupils try out some problems for the next 20 minutes and make all the mistakes they want.

Then the teacher can revise the topic for another 20 minutes. Next is my master stroke.

Let the pupils finish their work right there and then in class. No homework please!

I feel that the concept of homework is ridiculous. Who can the pupils ask at home? He or she would be left anxious the next morning having not completed the work. I remember when my eldest child, Fatimah, went through grade 4, 5 and 6 at the Clovenstone Primary School in Edinburgh, I have never seen her bring any homework back.

Well, there was one homework that she had to do and that was “reading” the link book with a parent. I would sit with her for 20 minutes while she read the books in flawless English and that was that.

Here in Malaysia, parents have to find private tutors to help with pupils finishing their work… for those who can afford RM70 an hour.

I truly think that the ministry should give this no-homework suggestion serious consideration. In my home, my wife has a private tutoring class for primary pupils.

We found out that when the Muslim children come home from school, they have to gobble up their food and get ready for sekolah agama. School for Muslims are from 7am to 5pm. Then at night, some of them have to go to a nenek somewhere for Quranic recitation or to a tuition class. There is hardly any time for play or leisure reading.

Now I will explain the importance of the free periods. When I visited an international school in KL, I was struck immediately by the many nooks and corners with comfortable seating and tables all over the school.

I also noticed the well-designed canteen that one can study at. The library was a heaven for lepak on bean bags with a book or just quiet chatting. In Malaysia, a free period is a rarity of a teacher on maternity leave, a teacher called in to a meeting, or a teacher called in sick.

Reading time? Again, if it so happens that a teacher is absent, then the replacement teacher would take the pupils to the library. With the two free periods, a pupil can eat and play while the second free period, he or she can read a book at the library or finish up on work with friends helping.

Thus, by reducing the subject per day, if pupils have to carry books, it would be only for three subjects and not for six. That would lessen the load… obviously. And anyway, who can learn six subjects a day? Only crazy Malaysians.

Design a new study-storage table

Another way of reducing the heavy bags of books is… not to bring home any book at all. A new study table can be easily designed with a lock to store the pupils’ books.

If the school is a two-session school, a slightly longer table that have two separate compartments should be designed.

The teacher will always keep the master key for the tables. For three years that my children went to primary school in Edinburgh, the only thing they took to school was their lunch boxes.

Their books and work sheets are all in the school and are kept there after they have done work in school. No homework. No studying is required because there were no tests. I have never seen my children cramming for any exam. When my wife asked about exams in our parent-teacher meeting, the answer was… no exam! There was a thick file of their work and we reviewed each one with the teacher.  

Reduce the number of subjects

In Malaysia, we seem to think that we can create millions of Einsteins by having nine subjects for our children. Really?

When I went to school, there were only six subjects. Art should not be counted since we never had any textbook but splashed paint or glued things together. Now we want to teach about Dadaism, Surrealism, Expressionism and try to create little Picassos and Rembrandts. Have we ever had an Einstein, Picasso or Rembrandt? No.

First of all, I think physical education and health education should just be one subject. It treats the same issue of exercise, diet and emotional management towards good health. There is no need for two separate subjects. Sometimes the pupils study in class, sometimes they are in the playing field doing exercises or physical games and sometimes they might do some aerobics.

Visual arts and music should be combined. Are we trying to create little Beethovens and Mozarts? Art is simply a composition of sounds, paints or materials into something useful or have some simple meaning. The product could be a painting, sculpture or a song or music. They are all simple forms of art in its basic meaning and form.

For Standard 4 to 6 pupils, the visual arts and technology should be combined. One definition of art is to be able to produce imitated objects or original forms of objects using the best know-how, including tools.

We do not need pupils memorising many tools but more of them messing around understanding how to use the tools. The Werkbund Institute and Bauhaus School in Germany in the early 1900 emphasised tools and materials of construction for the first two years of architecture education before the students are taught to draw and understanding theory of art.

Finally, I would like to ask why must there be a class in computer and IT? Why can’t this subject be integrated with English and Bahasa Melayu? In doing essays, pupils have to find references and examples using computers and type their essays into neat formats. Once a week, language pupils can be taken to the computer lab to mess around writing their sentences, dialogues or essays.

In conclusion, the heavy bag conundrum is none other than education run amok. When new issues or technology of education comes forth in the West, the Education Ministry does a simple exercise of “adding on” a new subject.

What we should do is revamp the whole thing. My children learnt three “fewer” science subjects in school in the UK.

Do we have any science innovators in our society? The Education Ministry has probably the biggest chunk of budget. They could just visit a few modern Western schools and make a simple comparison.

Or have exchange programmes so that we learn what real education is all about. In a PhD process, the most important academic exercise is to ask the right question within a defined context. The answer is simple after that. The heavy school bag issue has never been resolved because no one in the Education Ministry has ever thought of asking the right question. – July 2, 2018.  

* Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is a professor in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, UCSI University.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.