Hii delivers his welcoming speech.
Screengrab shows the participants of the online workshop.
SIBU: The Methodist Pilley Institute (MPI) and ACCA Malaysia jointly conducted Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) Mathematics Online Exam Technique Workshop on Nov 28, ran in conjunction with ‘MPI Virtual ACCA Day’.
The workshop – approved by the Ministry of Education and Sarawak Education Department – was conducted by former ‘Excellent Mathematics Teacher’, Tan Beng Puai, who was also the ‘Selangor Innovation Teacher 2013’. With 31 years of teaching experience under her belt, Tan is now a senior assistant teacher of SMK Pulau Ketam.
According to MPI, the purpose of the online workshop was to allow the experienced Mathematics teacher to share with Form 5 students her unique and effective examination technique, so that the students could perform well in the coming SPM examination.
The workshop involved 130 teachers and Education Department officers, and over 3,000 students from 67 schools in Sarawak and Sabah.
MPI principal Hii King Kai, in his welcoming speech, emphasised Mathematics as important, in view of the world ‘running on computers’.
“Computer programmes are basically mathematical logics.That’s why we call computers ‘computers’. Most of the subjects that we take in schools are teaching us what to think, but it is Mathematics that trains you how to think.
“Many researches have confirmed that learning Mathematics will make you a smarter person and be more productive in your work because you will be able to solve problems better. So when you improve your mathematical logic, I strongly believe that your grasp in learning other subjects will also improve.”
Dr Les Met, deputy director (learning sector) of Sarawak Education Department, also joined the event.
“What would happen to our students if they could not do well in Mathematics? What would happen to our economy, technology and the development of our state and nation, which would very much depend on our mathematical knowledge and skills? At the moment, we are actually struggling to get more students to enrol in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). We hope that whatever activities that we do, be they competitions, quizzes or workshops, could improve the performance of our students in Mathematics.”
He also regarded Mathematics as no longer ‘a simple and solitary subject, in and of itself, but rather it is an integration into multiple aspects of everyday life in the 21st century’.
“Now critical and creative-thinking are the fundamental skills for the future – these can be learned through Mathematics, so that’s why Mathematics is so important. In schools, students need to learn Mathematicsl; if you want to be good in Mathematics, you have to like Mathematics. After all, it is part of our curriculum. If you love and enjoy doing Mathematics, I believe you will prosper and you will get good results and do well in Mathematics.
“To our teachers, when we teach our students, we have to do it with our heart and mind, then we will be able to get it done handsomely and definitely, we will be able to have our students perform better in Mathematics.
“Moreover, teaching Mathematics also needs creativity, which I believe that our teachers have the skills and knowledge to do that.”
Explaining the importance of Mathematics in daily lives, Les said it was good for brains, ‘as the brains have billions of neuron cells, which need to be activated every day, every second – and to activate these neurons, Mathematics is needed’.
“At the same time, Mathematics helps us with our finance. Many people in the world are facing problems with money, that’s why the finance literacy is incorporated in the KSSR (Primary School Curriculum Standard) as early as in Year 1, to ensure that our students learn Mathematics and financial knowledge together, so that they would be able to address their financial problems in their future.
“Besides, if people are good at Mathematics, they have greater career options. Every career actually needs Mathematics, be it in the field of finance, business, science and technology, and medicine – all needs Mathematics.”
“Mathematics helps us understand the world – the place where we live in better, predict the future, and can be used to understand the entire universe,” he added.
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