Compulsory pass reason for high SPM dropouts: Need to review History syllabus

16 Sep 2023 • 1:12 PM MYT
Daily Express
Daily Express

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Kuala Lumpur: The government has been urged to review the History subject to ensure that it would not bored students and able to attract their interest to learn.

Tuaran Member of Parliament, Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau said he is concerned as a pass in History is compulsory and this was the cause of hundreds of thousands of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates failing in 2022.

“I was surprised to note how this could happen to our students.

Hence, I took the initiative to conduct a little research on the syllabus used – the Integrated High School Curriculum (KBSM) and then the Standard High School Curriculum (KSSM).

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Tangau said this on the catalyst policy of the Mid Term Review (KSP) under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) at the Dewan Rakyat.

He was speaking on one of the focuses first policy of KSP 12MP that is ‘Strengthening Future Talent’.

According to Tangau, History textbooks do not tell what happened in the past.

“For example, who is involved, what is the discussion, when and where. All these were not mentioned, thus causing the subject to become very boring and not fun.

“That’s why students don’t like it, teachers don’t like it and supervisors don’t like it either.

“Long story short, we want this subject to be reviewed. Let History subject be made in the form of storytelling or story about true stories that educate the students about the origin of our existence, the existence of this country,” he said.

Tangau who is also the Honorary President of the United Progressive Kinabalu Organization (Upko), emphasised that in order to build a Malaysian nation, every citizen needs to have a high sense of belonging to this country.

“How do we achieve that? We can only achieve that if we have a shared history, we have a shared beginning and for us in this Federation of Malaysia, our beginning is 1963,” he said.

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