Interlok – When a language lesson isn’t about language
By Eyes Wide Open
by Eyes Wide Open
Literature is indeed an excellent subject to help students develop communication skills, creative expression, critical thinking skills and appreciation of culture. Most of all, teaching literature should be about teaching the student to enjoy reading for himself/herself, so that through books he/she can gain an knowledge about things in the world-at-large.
Interlok was selected as the text for the compulsory literature component of the SPM Bahasa Melayu paper. However, it seems that Interlok has now been elevated to the status of race relations handbook. This can be seen in the various statements made by the literati, think tanks and the author himself.
Our own Education Ministry study guide seems to hint that this is exactly the ‘mission’ that has been assigned to Interlok, given its potential to mind-bend the way youths view their own race and their assigned place in the societal hierarchy.
It is clear that there is a quiet, unwritten acceptance that Interlok is an accurate roadmap for Malaysian race relations that must be taught to SPM students.
Missing The Forest For The Trees
Many people have argued that people should not be so sensitive, and that they should give Interlok as chance, that opinions that Interlok is being used as a political/racial indoctrination tool is just pure fantasy. We say, these people have not appreciated the scope of the issue at hand – this is a NATIONAL issue that affects every SPM student and their families.
But rather than present another lengthy argument against the use of Interlok in schools, we’ll let the cold, hard facts speak for themselves.
Hopefully, the facts and documentary evidence we present today will put all other arguments and conjectures to rest once and for all.
HartalMSM has managed to obtain a copy of a classroom lesson plan, designed and prescribed by the Education Ministry’s Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum – BPK (Curriculum Development Section). We present excerpts of it here. See for yourself whether it is really the government’s intention to indoctrinate students via the study of Interlok.
Below are excerpts of a classroom lesson plan for Interlok:
Read more at: http://hartalmsm.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/interlok-when-a-language-lesson-isnt-about-language/
