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Value is “the usefulness or importance of something”.

Ordinary people always cherish what is useful or important as they don’t have the luxury to choose willingly.

In the field of education, many people and educational institutes promise a lot of value to what they offer to the general public. Sometimes, their promises can be very bold and out of reach for a sane and sensible person. At the end of the day, their bold promises must manifest in the form of right results that can be observed by ordinary people.

There is no doubt that real learning is the result of individual effort too. Individuals who pursue education at various levels must put in the necessary effort if they intend to succeed academically.

It takes two to tango. The one who teaches and the one who learns must cooperate together to make the journey of teaching and learning a success. There are no shortcuts to success and there can never be shortcuts to success in any field.

Unfortunately, the field of education is A BIG BUSINESS today. 

People with no real experience in the field of education are setting up educational institutes to lure the gullible into believing that the gullible can achieve their dreams in the field of education even though they are not academically inclined. In Malaysia, the field of education is a cash cow for anyone with the financial muscle to invest in the venture.

Out of nowhere, a pandemic sprang out of the blue. As a result, many businesses are in the red now. It is more than a year since the pandemic hit and nobody knows for certain when businesses will be in the black again. The pandemic has added more colour into our lives. The whole world woke up to the seriousness of the situation brought about by the pandemic. WAKEY-WAKEY!

Life presents many opportunities. Life also presents many ills.

When ills aplenty appear unannounced, ordinary people are jolted out of their comfort zones. They begin to realise many things which they couldn’t observe during the good times. And one of those things is the state of education at the present moment.

Many students have shifted to online learning. It is now the NEW NORMAL. Previously, it was the OLD ABNORMAL and rightly so because every Tom, Dick and Harry or Jill, Jane and Joan or Ali, Tan and Ramasamy or Aminah, Mei Ling and Kumari were masquerading as educators.

In the new normal now, even parents are realizing that the educators are not who they claim to be. 

Isn’t it obvious? The pandemic which sprang out of the blue brought in its wake many skeletons in the cupboard. These skeletons are tottering openly. 

In Malaysia, some Malaysian parents who send their children to private and international schools are not satisfied with the performance of their children when it comes to Standard Written English. The parents don’t understand how their children can’t even write simple paragraphs that lead to writing lengthy essays. Furthermore, they don’t understand how their children can possibly write a summary from a given passage in the English language examination at the IGCSE O Level standard. To add more fuel to the fire, their children find it very difficult to comprehend and answer questions in the Comprehension section of the English language examination. Some of the students don’t even know the components that are found in a formal letter. Forget about their providing the body of the formal letter. Maybe these same students don’t even know the format of an informal letter.

The abovementioned items are what some of my online students lack the most. It is flabbergasting that some of them are students in private and international schools at the moment.

Most ordinary Malaysian parents have the notion that students in private and international schools are above par (academically) compared to the students in the local vernacular public schools, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. I disagree wholeheartedly.

Why aren’t students in the private and in the international schools better equipped in all the four skills of the English language compared to their counterparts in the local vernacular public schools? As all their subjects are also delivered in the English language, why aren’t they proficient in the understanding and the use of the English language in writing paragraphs, essays, summaries and in comprehending simple prose passages? As these students find it very difficult to attempt the Competence Form of English, how can they possibly understand the Literary Form of English – literature, poetry and literary essays? What and how do the English language teachers in the private and in the international schools teach their charges? 

I may be accused of forming conclusions based on just a few examples of my online students. But I cannot be accused of forming conclusions based on my training adults (in the training room and on a one-to-one basis) for more than 20 years. After all, the adults were also students during their formal schooling. Did the Malaysian adults just appear from OBLIVION? 

Have ordinary Malaysians ever wondered why Malaysia has the perennial problem of unemployable graduates year after year? Did these unemployable Malaysian graduates appear from OBLIVION too?

But the extraordinary Malaysians – the political and the business elites – say that EVERYTHING IS HUNKY-DORY AND SUPERB IN THE MALAYSIAN EDUCATIONAL FIELD. In fact, these EXTRA VERY EXTRA-ORDINARY MALAYSIANS  are even promoting Malaysia as an educational hub to foreigners. 

It is no wonder that MOST ORDINARY MALAYSIANS always end up unemployable in Malaysia year after year. 

Malaysian parents pay through the nose for their children’s education at the private and the international schools in Malaysia. They also pay for their children’s online learning as their children are still very weak in the respective subjects.

Malaysian parents are literally throwing money and not getting the right results. Can the ordinary Malaysian parents keep throwing money when more businesses in Malaysia are shutting down and making Malaysians jobless in the process? 

Day by day, the pandemic is rearing its ugly head. It will take a very long time to revive the Malaysian economy to the same level as it was before the pandemic hit.

Malaysian parents will have to choose between the schools, where they still don’t observe any results and value for money delivered by mostly mediocre teachers, and online learning, where they observe the right results and value for money delivered by competent teachers.

In the online learning world, Malaysian parents get to choose real educators who deliver the right results and who offer value for money. The parents observe the right results and the value for money based on the feedback given by their children and on the notes given by their online tutors.

What is the need for the Malaysian parents to tolerate mediocre teachers employed by schools that conduct their teaching online now? How long can Malaysian parents do that? Is it until their savings are completely depleted?

The pandemic has been raging for more than a year. It has ravaged businesses and economies around the world. NOTHING IS CERTAIN. At the very least, Malaysian parents can provide their children with real education delivered by real educators who give value for money. THAT ACTION IS CERTAIN.

The private and the international schools are stuck with the mediocre teachers as those schools can’t just sack their mediocre teachers. Why are Malaysian parents stuck with these schools that hire mediocre teachers?

When Malaysian parents join the league of the jobless in Malaysia, will they still throw money on unproductive ventures that offer nothing of value?

Real educators offer value for money as they spend their time, effort and money (in some instances) when they prepare notes or materials for their students who are really interested in “the understanding of knowledge and the encouragement of intellectual curiosity”. 

Anyone can offer information. In fact, information can be obtained from various sources these days. 

Can everyone offer “the understanding of knowledge and the encouragement of intellectual curiosity”?

My English language programmes using the Structural Approach do offer students and adults the understanding of knowledge pertaining to the English language and the encouragement of intellectual curiosity as the Structural Approach is based on the logical methods of dealing with knowledge.

What are the logical methods of dealing with knowledge? INDUCTION and DEDUCTION are logical methods of dealing with knowledge.

For that reason, Malayans who learned English using the Structural Approach before 1970 were serious thinkers who could express their thoughts, feelings and ideas very forcefully to the rest of the world.

The Malayans were taught how to analyse and synthesise sentences (found only in Traditional Grammar) during their formal schooling. As a result, those same Malayans blazed the trail in their respective endeavours successfully.

The success of the Structural Approach in the Malaysian context has been proven before 1970.

I am doing my teeny-weeny part by conducting English language programmes using the Structural Approach. I offer willing and serious learners (students and adults) the opportunity to understand and use the English language effectively at the workplace and in the social environment.

To conclude, I offer value for money as my English Language Programmes Using The Structural Approach are worth the money they cost.