THE Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) will be introduced next year, starting with Year One pupils.
It will be more holistic and less examination-oriented for pupils.
The KSSR will replace the existing primary school integrated curriculum (KBSR), which was first introduced in 1983, and subsequently reviewed in 2003.
The Education Ministry’s Curriculum Development Division director Datuk Dr Julaihi Bujang said the ministry saw the need to make changes to meet the challenges of the future.
Dr Julaihi (left) and Dr Lee discussing the new curriculum.
Changes have been made in areas related to curriculum, assessment, teacher training, monitoring as well as teaching and learning approaches.
“This means the curriculum is pupil-centred with an emphasis on fun learning, critical and creative thinking, reasoning skills, communication and ICT literacy.
“We have benchmarked against the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and Scandinavian countries,” he said.
Dr Julaihi said the new curriculum is based on six key areas —
communication, spiritual attitude and values, humanitarianism, literacy in science and technology, physical and personal development — to produce holistic individuals.
The division’s deputy director Dr Lee Boon Hua explained that the focus will be on the mastery of literacy, numeracy and reasoning skills.
“This even includes penmanship as we have found some pupils have not been taught how to hold a pen or pencil properly, which in turn affects their writing skills,” he added.
In addition, there will be an emphasis on creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship, and information and communication technology.
“Learning will be made more fun and the approaches used include it being project and activity-based and problem-based learning, with ICT components introduced as early as Year One,” he said.
Giving an example, he said in KBSR, the objective was stated in terms of learning outcomes but in KSSR, it was the content standards which pupils need to achieve.
“This means that by Year Six English, pupils must be able to write a formal letter using appropriate language while in Year Four, it would be to know the format, structure and salutation,” he explained.
In Level One (Years One to Three) at the primary level for national and vernacular schools, the core modules are Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese, Tamil, Mathematics, Physical Education, Health Education as well as Islamic Studies or Moral Education.
The elective modules will be Arabic, Chinese for national schools, Tamil for national schools, Iban and Kadazan – Dusun. Pupils will also be exposed to Science and Technology, and Arts in the form of Visual Arts and Music.
In Level Two (Years Four to Six), the subjects will be based on five modules — communication, science and technology, physical and aesthetics, spiritual attitude and values and humanitarianism.
Dr Lee said a pilot project involving 500 schools was carried out throughout the country.
“We received positive feedback from the pupils, teachers and parents involved.
“These include that the standards set for each subject are able to be implemented and achievable, and flexibility in terms of pupils’ needs, school location and availability of teachers,” he explained.
In terms of teacher training, Dr Lee said this was based on the cascade model, meaning that master trainers for all subjects have been trained, and will in turn train teachers in the respective states.
New textbooks for Year One have been distributed to the schools, he added.
Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said earlier this year that the transformation of the school curriculum based on creativity and innovation will make learning fun and no longer examination-oriented.
He said the transformation is significant as it involves the curriculum, approaches to teaching and learning as well as values.
Dr Lee said the transformation includes revamping the secondary school curriculum. “Work on this has started and the new curriculum will be implemented in 2014,” he said.
