My 7 year old took LINUX test ??? wow

My eldest otomen came back from school yesterday with his test results. Here's the score:-

Mathematics : 78%
BM Penulisan : 80%
BM Kefahaman : 63%
Agama Islam : 65% (euuwww, malu!)

The rest of the results are yet to be known. Well, he is just 7 years old, and it was just a monthly test, so I shrugged off the results. OK per...not like he is taking UPSR or whatever...

Wait a minute. Below the test results, there's a letter from school. So I read that letter, uninterestedly at first, but when I read through the whole letter, it felt like I had a heart attack. The letter is telling me that my otomen will be transfered to another class, as he did not pass the LINUS saringan test.

And I was like, wtf, LINUX ? Why in the world should a seven year old took a LINUX test ? Oh, for the ignoramus, LINUX is a UNIX-like operating system, which was developed thanks to the open source system. Difficulty level in LINUX ? Like cracking your heads against the wall -lah. That's how difficult Linux is. So why did my seven year old boy took a Linux test ?


Whoops...it's not Linux lohhhhh...it's Linus. Aiyyah...my eyes....


And what does Linus stands for ? It's the elegant Literasi & Numerasi test. Owh. But I still don't know head or tails about Linus. So I asked my best friend Mr G. When I typed LINUS, Mr G gave me 9,020,000 hits. The first page is mostly about Linus Torvalds, a Finnish software engineer, who is by the way, the very person who initiated the Linux kernel, and from which the Linux name in IT world was coined from.

But I persevered, and after a few pages, I stumbled across Linus program as introduced by Malaysian Ministry of Education, which kicks of in year 2010. Oh wow, it has just begun. I had also stumbled across some blogs, most of which are angry parents whose children was unlucky enough to not pass the Linus test, and be forced to join the rehab class. Oh yes, it's a rehab class for those kids who didn't pass the Linus test. In bahasa, it's the dreaded kelas pemulihan.

And again, I muttered some expletives. Kelas Pemulihan ? WTF ? My boy can read, spell and do simple maths, he is just in standard one, and it is just March for crying out loud, why should he enter kelas pemulihan ? And so I researched some more. Here's what I found about Linus.

Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia (KPM) ingin merujuk kepada SMS “BUNGAJAMBUL:BHA19471” dalam ruangan SMS dalam akhbar Berita Harian bertarikh 25 Februari 2010 – ‘Pengenalan Program Linus dalam Tahun Satu hanya akan menjadikan kurikulum tahun satu semakin bercelaru’.

Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia mengucapkan ribuan terima kasih atas keprihatinan tuan tentang pelaksanaan program Literasi dan Numerasi (LINUS) Tahun Satu. Program LINUS merupakan salah satu daripada National Key Result Area (NKRA’s) Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. Melalui program ini, kementerian telah menyasarkan bahawa semua murid yang tiada masalah pembelajaran berupaya menguasai kemahiran membaca, menulis dan mengira selepas mengikuti pendidikan tiga tahun di peringkat rendah pada akhir tahun 2012.

Program ini dilaksanakan pada tahun 2010, melibatkan murid Tahun Satu di sekolah rendah yang merupakan kohort pertama mengikuti program ini. Semua murid Tahun Satu akan menduduki ujian LINUS Saringan 1 pada awal tahun untuk menilai tahap penguasaan kemahiran asas literasi dan numerasi mereka. Murid yang dikenal pasti masih belum mencapai kemahiran asas literasi dan numerasi, akan diasingkan daripada murid arus perdana (dalam kumpulan tidak melebihi 30 orang). Mereka akan diajar insentif oleh guru LINUS (guru Bahasa Malaysia dan guru Matematik Tahap 1) serta dibantu oleh guru pemulihan khas LINUS dan dilaksanakan dalam waktu Bahasa Malaysia dan waktu Matematik mengikut peruntukan waktu sedia ada. Murid yang berjaya dipulihkan melalui program ini, akan meneruskan pembelajaran di aliran perdana.

Pihak Kementerian Pelajaran telah merancang beberapa strategi untuk memastikan program LINUS ini dilaksanakan dengan baik dan tidak membebankan pihak sekolah. Antaranya memberi latihan khusus kepada guru LINUS dalam teknik pemulihan dan bimbingan untuk membantu murid yang mempunyai masalah literasi dan numerasi, menyediakan modul pengajaran dan pembelajaran asas literasi dan numerasi yang sesuai dengan tahap kebolehan murid, penambahan guru pemulihan khas, melaksanakan program kesedaran tentang pentingnya asas membaca, menulis dan mengira dalam kalangan warga sekolah dan komuniti, menjalankan pemantauan, penyeliaan dan penilaian serta menempatkan fasilitator LINUS di setiap Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah untuk membantu guru bagi memastikan program ini berkesan dan mencapai matlamatnya.

Diharap penjelasan dan penerangan ini boleh mengatasi keraguan tuan tentang pelaksanaan program ini.

Unit Komunikasi Korporat

Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia.

Source:

http://www.moe.gov.my/?id=168&aid=731

Well, it is still not enough to pacify me. So I called ahkakbatik for some taxi cum nanny service (heh heh jangan marah, nanti ko pi US takde dah orang nak nyusahkan ko lagi!), and she was kind enough to oblige me. And so we went to the school. I was lucky enough that Hafiz's classroom teacher was in the Teacher's Lounge (damn, I made it sound so elegant, kan?), and armed with Hafiz's test results papers, I bombarded her with questions.

Puan Syahidah was kind enough to listen to my grumbles, and then when I took out the test papers, she kindly told me that the Linus test result did not come from the test papers that I brought. I froze. WTF ? Was there another test that I am not aware of ? Yes, she told me. There was a separate test for Linus, in which the student took the test, and the teachers keyed in the data (as collected from students' answer) to the computer, who analyzed the answers, and decided if the student pass the test and should join the mainstream class (meaning normal classes) or failed the Linus test, and should join the rehab classes.


And to console me, Puan Syahidah told me that there are even students with excellent test results who failed Linus test and be forced to join the rehab class. And there's another repeat test in June, in which if my boy pass the test, he can join the mainstream class. And if not, well...I hope that my boy will find his way out....

Sigh...