Issues in remedial education in Malaysia.

“Traditionally, children who have been excluded, who live in remote or conflicted affected areas, orphans
and other vulnerable groups are most likely to need remedial education” ( Schwartz, 2012,p.6)

Above statement is quoted by Schwartz, defining that remedial learning occurs when children are
being excluded from the general education system. Schwartz stating that children who live in remote area
or outskirts are lacking in language proficiency. Looking at the issues in our nation, remedial learning is
giving tough to the teachers where level 1 primary school pupils (Year 1, year 2 and year 3) are still yet to
master the skills of reading and writing. Does Malaysia also encountering the issues based on Schwartz
statement?

In Malaysia, pupils from urban area are also participating in remedial learning. Hence, it isn’t
about the geographical order. Most of the teachers are not convinced that the time given to monitor
pupils is insufficient. The remedial education schedule is normally within the class hours. Therefore,
teachers need to teach, guide and enable the pupils to master the specific area in scheduled hours. The
remedial classes sometime having congested number of pupils per lesson. This causes the teachers to
have less time with pupils to sit and observe closely. The school administrator shall reschedule the
remedial class hours and bestow more time to teach and monitor pupils’ progress to obtain literacy and
numeracy excellence.

Adding to the point, intervention or instrument used to meet the pupils’ proficiency is also playing
a vital role. Teachers should use appropriate intervention to teach the targeted area of 3R’s. This is due
to; variety of pupils’ learning ability will cost different teaching and learning process. The pupils’ cognitive
level determines the comprehension of the lesson in remedial class. Teachers can use the ICT skills to
engage the pupils actively in the reading session. For instance, reading on a video with vocabulary display.
This could help the pupils to read while enjoying the visuals in the video. Therefore, teachers need to
prepare suitable teaching materials aligned to their pupils’ proficiency level at the same time, ensure
pupils’ interest like adding in the ICT skills. This will aid the mastery of the targeted area of weak pupils
when they are exposed to the latest concepts and practices of basic educational technology.

Most of the teachers are not all trained under special remedial education system. Some of the
teachers are from different courses like social science, economic, management and etc. Those teachers
were absorbed in education field and appointed by the administrator due to lack of remedial teachers in
the school. In the long run, the teachers are struggling to fit in the “remedial teacher” position since they
had never attended any remedial courses. Thus, the non-trained teachers are finding difficult to identify
the remedial pupils’ learning problems. The limited knowledge due to lack of training will lead to failures
in producing competent pupils in the targeted skills, reading, writing and arithmetic.

In conclusion, our nation has to have trained remedial teachers in specific to help the remedial
pupils in the classroom. They will be the experts in helping the low proficiency pupils who are lacking in
basic skills, reading, writing and arithmetic. However, in the sense of time, our pupils will certainly struggle
to cope in both remedial and general classes. Special remedial teachers are needed to be placed in their
specific room to guide, teach and enhance the pupils’ literacy. Furthermore, schools must give priority in
providing funds to develop the quality of remedial teaching aids such as using ICT, access to the electronic
media like computers, televisions and smart gadgets.