BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WITH HONOURS

JANUARY / 2022

OUMH1203

ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

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INSTRUCTIONS
 Do not copy the assignment question and instructions to your answer.
 Prepare your assignment answer following the layout of the ASSESSMENT
CRITERIA shown in the RUBRICS provided for the course. Where RUBRICS are
not provided, follow the instructions/guidelines specified by the Open University
Malaysia (OUM) for the assignment concerned.
 Your assignment should be written according to the number of words outlined
in the assignment instruction EXCLUDING references.
 Type your answer using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1.5 line spacing.
 Show the number of words at the end of your assignment.
 Tables and figures where provided, should be appropriately titled.
 List your references separately in the APPENDIX page.

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 PART 1

Task 1

OUTLINE
Introduction

Homeschooling is a way of teaching children at home rather than the conventional way of
sending them to public school which is legal but is relatively new concept in Malaysia
and have its advantages dan disadvantages that needs further understanding and
acknowledgement.

Body

1. Family time
a. Pros: more time with children
b. Cons: less time for yourself
i. Example 1: strong bonding between children and parents at the
expense of lesser time to take care of yourself.
ii. Example 2: stress and fatigue

2. Expenditure
a. Pros: bundled learning packets or tools, vacations as part of curriculum
b. Cons: loss of income / reduced time working
i. Example 1: more budget for outdoor activities
ii. Example 2: quitting job to homeschooled children and loss income

3. Socialization
a. Pros: less ridicule and social pressures
b. Cons: smaller circle of friends
i. Example 1: learning at home with less people to interact to
ii. Example 2: issues with social interacting

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 4. Freedom and flexibility
a. Pros: syllabus skipping. Don’t have to teach all
b. Cons: more time and responsibility
i. Example 1: easier subject less explaining, challenging subject took
more time.
ii. Example 2: learning curve process must be understood

5. Recognition
a. Pros: greater achievement due to less distraction
b. ConS: less recognition of good work
i. Example 1: recognition is a motivation
ii. Example 2: award ceremony to reward good accomplishment

Conclusion

- No good or bad in homeschooling since it is becoming more of a trend.

- Parents wanted the very best for their children.

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Task 2

This essay is my assignment for subject OUMH1203, English for Written

Communication. This subject is a mandatory subject to be taken by all OUM students.
Without further ado, I will explain about the topic at hand. This essay is discussing about
the pros and cons on homeschooling in Malaysia.
I wanted to quote a famous line by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most
powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” These quote shows how
important education is to every human being in this world. Education makes us a better
person. Definitely.
Education has always been a contentious issue in Malaysia ever since
independence. Malaysia’s educational issues have continually revolved around political
motivations, policy changes and pedagogical approaches. The uncertainty of Malaysian
education has led to the development of alternative systems of education in addressing
these gaps within the national education system. COVID-19 that struck the nation in 2020
that led to Movement Control Order (MCO) being put up to control the movement of
Malaysian, also helps gaining popularity and pave the way for a new alternative system
of education – namely, homeschooling.
What is homeschooling? Homeschooling is and educational practice that is fully
supervised by parents at regular schooling and it takes place on the same day as the
public schools (Rajamony, 2008; Ray, 2000). Homeschooling is becoming a new norm
for every parents nowadays. Homeschooling is getting popular and becoming an
alternative for many families, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Homeschooling is relatively new to Malaysian as majority of parents decides to enroll
their children to traditional ‘Sekolah Kebangsaan” or Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan”
and international school. According to Ray, (2009), the choice of homeschool by the
parents is due to the belief of that it is the parents’ responsibility to determine the best
form of education for their children.
Homeschooling is legal in Malaysia. As we all know, according to the Education
(Amendment) Act 2002, it is compulsory for parents to enroll their children in a primary
school for six years. However, parents can apply to homeschool their children through

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the Ministry of Education. Unfortunately, not every application for homeschooling will
be granted permission by the ministry as there is stringent regulations that needs to be
adhere to. According to Rajamony, (2008), the actual number of homeschoolers in
Malaysia is less than the number of the approved homeschoolers by the Ministry of
Education.
Homeschooling involves the use of a self-determined curriculum which can be
bought at the bookstores or can be determined by combining the best from available
syllabuses. There are readily available resources to made homeschooling easier. With
internet and online chatting, the homeschooling parents can establish their own circles,
homeschooling websites, forums, etc. (He, 2012). Alternatively, parents can join support
groups and starts sharing homeschooling resources with one another. This support groups
are beneficial as they gathered on Internet and organize online discussions among
parents.
Although the homeschooling trend is new but becoming more popular in Malaysia,
parents need to know that homeschooling is only an alternative and not a mainstream
education in Malaysia. It is still growing with all kinds of syllabus and curricular module
brought by homeschooler’s parents and private schools that offer homeschool education.
The number of homeschoolers in Malaysia is still growing as issues of mishandle of
student cases, social problem in traditional school, inefficiency in teaching and learning
and practice in the traditional school that is not aligned with the family’s belief has led to
the increase of homeschools population in Malaysia.
That is the reason for me to write this essay, to provide an idea and insight about
the pros and cons of homeschooling is Malaysia.
Home schooling is a learning process taught by parents to their children. These
two-way communications always a perfect start for a learning process as the children can
react directly and accordingly to the teaching method of the parents. The children spend
time a lot with their parents during this learning process rather than the mainstream
learning process at school where the teachers took the responsibility to teach the children
and the parents took over after school hour, sometimes. The children will be more
attached to their parents as they only spend all the time learning at home. Therefore, the
parents will be satisfied that their children are learning, developing skills, and maturing in

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a way that aligns to their goals and values thus building stronger relationships with the
children.
Contrary to that, when the children are homeschooled, they are always at home and
will be interacting all the time with their parents. The parents must plan school-time and
activities and handle the administrative work of being a teacher. This led to less time
available for the parents to manage his or her ‘me’ time thus potentially led to more stress
and fatigue by taking parenting and teacher responsibilities. Since homeschooled children
have their own scheduled of learning and mostly from morning until afternoon, the
parents must carefully arrange their time to do house chores and so on. Usually when
homeschooling the children, parents tend to leave their children to learn by themselves so
that they can do the home chores and so on but that will leave the children unattended to
and distracted away from their learning process.
For example, the parents normally go to the market or grocery stores in the morning
to buy groceries. This is a routine for everyday parents to have to do groceries purchases,
go to ATM to withdraw money, and so on. There are some parents who joins certain
community programs in their neighborhood such as Zumba, volunteering programs etc.
This routine will have to be rearranged to commit to homeschooling the children where
the parents need to spend more time and attention to the children education.
Another example is parents who spends all day homeschooling their children will
most probably experience stress and fatigue by taking on parenting and teacher
responsibilities. This is true because teaching is an arduous task to do especially if the
learner is very slow on catching up what the teacher instructed.
So, time management is crucial in homeschooling children at home. Parents need to
arrange their time perfectly to ensure their children is always getting the full attention
from their parents to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective.
When planning to homeschool your children, money or expenditure is a key factor
to be considered about. Whether homeschooling will affect the family’s budget or not
should be accounted for. More money needed to be dedicated to education in
homeschooling if parents decided to plan vacations and other activities as part of the
homeschool curriculum. All work and no play are not good for the children development
though. Parents always wanted to provide the very best education for their children. It is

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up to them to decides what’s good and what’s bad for their children since the
responsibility of teaching their children rest in their own hands.
On the contrary, by spending more for the children’s education means lesser money
is being available in hand. Dedicating time to homeschooling can mean a loss of income
or reduced time working. So, the family’s budget needs to be tightened to offset the
balance. Learning does not come cheap. Even going to mainstream school, parents must
pay for fees, not forgetting books and uniform body t-shirts. That’s alone totaling to
hundreds of ringgits. So does homeschooling. In the end, parents need to manage their
budget carefully and prudently.
For example, the parents wanted to take the children on a vacation to visit the
aquarium as his learning curriculum to that day. This will incur cost as the parents have
to pay for tickets. Let say, the parents wanted to bring their children to National
Planetarium for learning purposes the next weekend. This outdoor program is very
beneficial since the children will be learning firsthand and will be enjoying the outdoor
trips. But the parents must fork out more money to make this happens, thus leads to a
tighten budget.
Second example, the parents are both working. Then suddenly they decided to
homeschool their children. One of them will be needed to quit his or her job to
homeschool the child. These will lead to a loss of income and ultimately a tighter budget
for the family.
When choosing to homeschool, there is many factors to be considered for. One of it
is, the child’s socialization path. Homeschooling is less ridicule and social pressures that
reduce self-esteem dan discourage learning that leads to no bullying. Furthermore, the
child will have greater exposure to more adults through field trips and other activities.
Additionally, the child’s real-life skill building is stronger in home-based learning rather
than in mainstream school.
Oppose to that, when the children are homeschooled, they will have less connection
to outer environment during their study time. They only have their parents or close
relatives with them all the time. The children only have a small circle of friends which
are also homeschool just like them. When learning at the traditional school, children will
have more interaction. Either with their teachers or with their classmates. This will be a

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good opportunity for them to hone their social skills but in homeschooling, they will have
none of that.
For example, in a traditional school, children are encouraged to participate in every
activity that the school organize such as sports, extra-curricular activities, etc. this way,
the children will learn how to interact with each other and learn social skills. But in a
homeschool setup, the children only interact with their parents and relatives without the
ability to socializes with another person.
Another example is a child is likely to have a problem to interact with other people
at one point in life. They will be having social issues such as shame, always alone when
in a social program and so on. This is mainly because they were not familiar of having to
interact with other people except family members and close relatives.
Homeschooling provides more educational freedom and flexibility. The child can
move more quickly through assignments and subjects they excel and spend more time on
topics that are challenging. This means that the child does not have to learn through all
the syllabus in a book. Instead, just focusing on the once that is difficult for them to
understand. Additionally, homeschoolers tend to perform better on standardized test
compared to their counterpart. This is true since homeschoolers did not have the
distraction which is common in children in traditional school. The very best part in
homeschooling is no homework. Since all learning is going on during the day so there is
no need to task the child with additional work. Since children have their own ability to
understand and react to different teaching methods, parents can pursue child’s interests
and have more personalized learning-matching lessons to child’s learning styles.
On the contrary, mainstream school is funded by the government and obviously has
complete facilities, equipment, and technologies to make learning process easy and
efficient. Compared to homeschooling fewer resources. Parents must make do with what
they have in hand. Furthermore, parents must teach a broad range of subjects thus greater
freedom and flexibility requires more time and responsibility from the parent.
For example, teachers in traditional school will give their students homework for
them to go through at home since in school they cannot focus entirely on a subject or
entirely on a student to cope with the syllabus at hand. Therefore, homework is given to
help make the student more understandable about the topics learned in school.

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Comparable to homeschoolers, they were taught firsthand and if there is something they
did not understand, the parents can give more focus to them regarding the subject at hand.
Another example is when the parents teach a new chapter which is quite difficult,
the children will have difficulties is understanding the teachings. Parents should pay
much more attention to the children and this learning curve process happens every day in
the children’s life. The parents should be flexible and understandable with their child.
To motivate children, parents need to give complement when they achieved
something great. That will motivate them to be more exuberant. Homeschoolers learn in a
home setup without other students around them. Less distraction from students who do
not value learning allows for greater achievement. Furthermore, homeschoolers often
show a greater pride in their own achievements, as they are self-motivated.
On the contrary, homeschoolers are not that recognized outside of the
homeschooling setup since their achievement is unknown to others except themselves
and their parents. There are fewer award ceremonies to reward their achievement, as are
common in public schools. Parents usually praise their children for good grades. Some do
reward the child with day trip to his favorite places, spends time watching movies, etc.
The recognition will further motivate the child to be more successful in the future.
One example is recognition is the best way to appreciate someone’s achievements.
Same goes to a child. When they did something remarkable, parents should give them
credit so that the child knows when they did something good, their parents will
acknowledge them and give rewards for every achievement they get.
Another example, a parents might celebrate their child’s achievement of high grade
in standardized test by bringing the child to the Zoo or Suria KLCC rather then just give
them praise and motivation. This day trip will be a recognition and will be good for the
motivation of the child to do the best in the future. But, in a public school, the child will
be awarded in a special ceremony where his classmates and all students in the school
attends to. His achievement is well known thus the family also will get the recognition for
their child’s achievement.
The practice of homeschooling existed in various form and comes in formal and
informal manner. Home schooling may not be for everyone. However, it is ideal for some
families. Globally, homeschool is a growing trend. It seems that Malaysian parents are

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adapting to global changing trend. Home schooling offers an alternative for parent
believing that the current formal school system is not suitable for their children. Like the
formal education system, it has its good and bad too. Thus, it is not for everyone. Parent
who depends on two incomes will no be able to handle homeschooling. Lacking structure
and proper syllabus could be another issue. Homeschooling requires consistent dedication
of the parent.
Parents only wants what’s best for their children. It is not a problem if parents see
homeschooling as an alternative education system but please be aware of the
consequences and prepare to bear the consequences if the decision for homeschooling is
not the best suited solutions for the dissatisfactory for formal education system.
Homeschooling education is a long and arduous journey that must be carefully thought
for and decided with adding all the various consequences that comes with every decision.
The future of your children is in your hands.
Finally, I hope this essay will give benefits and information for those who seeks
clarifications and suggestions regarding the pros and cons of homeschooling educational
system in Malaysia. I would like to thank my tutor for helping and guiding me to
complete this essay.

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 ATTACHMENT

REFERENCES

He, W. H. (2012). Deep analysis on homeschooling in China: A comparison between

China and America. Zhejiang Social Sciences, 11.

Rajamony, E. J. A. Y. (2008). The Malaysian experience in home schooling (Ph. D,

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur).

Ray, B. D. (2000). Home-schooling: The ameliorator of negative influences on learning?

Peabody Journal of Education, 75, 71-106. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2000.9681936

Ray, B. D. (2009). Homeschool progress report 2009: Academic achievement and

demographics. Retrieved from
http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray2009/2009_Ray_StudyFINAL.pdf

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PART 2

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