my chapter 1 final

Dealing with disciplinary problems: A case study on a cluster school in USJ Subang Jaya district that has successfully implemented demerit system to reduce student disciplinary problems.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study Education organisation is considered as the most important organisation in each and every country. It does not only serve as the indicator of the country’s development but also provide some information of how far the country will progress in the near future. This paper will discuss on this topic focusing on the human capital development. This is due to fact that human capitals are seen as the most important and invaluable asset of a country to improve its economy and social development. Although the emergence of globalisation era, enhanced by the materialistic development and ICT progression, is said to be able to further contribute into development of a nation; this progress would not work well if the human capitals are not in a good condition. This paper will also try to seek out the importance of human capital development and list down a few approaches which is hoped to help the process. This is done to suit the nation’s need and aspirations in preparing the nation for Vision 2020. The plans and strategies mentioned in this paper are relating to the current National Education Blueprint, which is the current major reference material for national educational organisation development. The “human capital” term was introduced by Arthur Cecil Pirgou in 1928 through his book entitled A Study in Public Finance. This concept is also highlighted by Gary Becker in his book with the title Human Capital in year 1964. Both of these writers hold a strong belief that human capital could be develop through education and practice. (Abu Samah, 2007, p. 8). In terms of Islamic history perspective, the concept of human capita; is formerly introduced by the prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h in Mecca, where he developed human capital and act as the perfect example of a good and productive human being; which is one of the various heavenly-given task for him as the prophet of Islamic faith. (Ahmad Imam Arief, 2007, p. 59). The examples shown by prophet Muhammad was followed by the people around him and those who had chosen to turn into Islamic faith, which then contribute to the Golden Era for Islamic Era, especially during the ruling of the Abbasid Caliphate. Relatively speaking, human capitals could be referred as the capacity of an individual or population which is constructed from the mixture of knowledge, skills, expertise and the individuals’ inner self and behaviour; which could be both acquired by experience or carried from birth. In Malaysia, the importance of human capital development were given strong emphasise, especially in Penyata Razak 1965 and Laporan Rahman Talib 1960, in which both of these important documents were further developed into the Akta Pelajaran 1961, Jawatankuasa Kabinet 1979, and National Educational Philosophy 1988. As stated in the National Educational Philosophy: “Education in Malaysia is a continuous effort towards enhancing potentials of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner in order to create individuals who are well-equipped intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. This effort aims to produce knowledgeable, ethical and responsible Malaysian citizens who are can contribute towards the harmony and prosperity of the community and nation.” This shows that Malaysia placed a strong emphasis on developing human capitals through its education sectors and organisations in order to assist the nations’ development. To foster human capital that will then take part in development processes, it is essential to promote assistance not only in primary education, but also in various stage of learning. In terms of schools organisation in Malaysia, the school rules and regulations were prepared with the cooperation of the school disciplinary board and parents-teacher-association (PTA). It is also based from the guidelines given by the Ministry of Education. School rules and regulations serve as guidance for parents, teachers and students to a standard of discipline which will assist the students through their schooling experience and in turns, help mould individuals with good moral behaviour which is highly needed for the nation’s development. In order to further enhance the standard of discipline in schools, the Ministry of Education has introduced E-Discipline; a merit-demerit points system. It is to replace the former manual + Microsoft Excel system that has been used by schools in Malaysia for years. The current change in the merit-demerit system was introduced to reflect the change of the government’s system in order to cope with the digital era experienced by the whole world population. Through this system, the schools are required to list the accumulated demerit points for every student at least once per month. Students can then check with the teachers the offenses they have committed and how they can off-set these demerit points, for example undertaking goodwill tasks such as clearing schools’ store room or cleaning the class window. Based from the successful result of the program for St. Thomas Secondary School, Sarawak, it could be said that a good school principal could further increase the efficiency of the program. The school principal, Peter Foo provided a good example of good leadership. Leadership, on the other hand, has been the most significant area of research in education especially in term of the role of a principle. It is said that the lack of the leadership characteristic of the principal will curb the school’s goal, accomplishment and effectiveness. As reported by BERNAMA, St. Thomas Secondary School is seen as the role model for schools. Other school authorities, including one from Malaysian neighbouring country, Brunei Darussalam, are coming to the school to learn how to solve the disciplinary problems for their primary and secondary school students. When asked by BERNAMA, the principal, Peter Foo and his Senior Assistant (1), Tilai Bala Udan, for the school’s secret of success, they give out an integrated and systematic discipline system called the “Merit and Demerit Discipline System” (MDDS) as the solution. The previously mentioned principle stated that, underpinning the system are the various stakeholders whom responsible for moulding or shaping the characteristics of the students, namely, the school administrators, teachers, prefects, class monitors, parents and school counsellors. Involvement of the various stakeholders, Foo said, is deliberate and structured to assist on the positive shift in students’ behaviour. Furthermore, the school’s principle has displayed a good example of good leadership skill when he stated, “We have the highest hope for the school, true to its mission statement of ‘Aim Higher’. We aspire to be the national benchmark for areas related to disciplines, prefect system and counselling department. Most importantly, we would like to see our students do well in life.” By having a clear aim and strong motivational drive, the school had effectively reduced the disciplinary problems in the school. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the effectiveness of the “Merit and Demerit Discipline System” (MDDS) in a cluster school situated in USJ, Subang Jaya, Selangor. 1.2 Problem Statement There have been a few suggested explanations and definitions on the source of deviants; i.e.a person who is differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society. Functionalist theorist, for example, assume that deviants as the dysfunction of the society. On the other hand, the Conflict theory stated that the deviants are those who were oppressed by the oppressing minorities. However, sub-culture and deprivation status theory also suggested that the deviants came from the differentiation between smaller groups in a society among the bigger groups of society. The source of the act of defiance could be simplified, from these theories to came from the economic problems and the deviants’ emotional state. To put into simpler word, relatively speaking, majority of the deviants came from the society with lower income and possess weak emotional strength. A study by Tattum (1986) shown that some students deliberately display acts of defiance as a neutralisation technic in their interactions among their peers. According to Merton (1986), there are four types of deviant acts; which are innovation (a way to accomplish a goal with wicked or socially-unacceptable steps), ritual (a repetition of previously done acts), backing-off (usually done by an individual who is no longer interested with his or her stated goal thus creating other alternatives to be act on) and resistance (not accepting the schooling goals thus replacing with others unrelated goals). Educational organisations are often faced with various act of deviance from its students, especially relating to smoking inside and outside school compounds, gangsterism, bullying case, drugs problems and many others. The issues arising from these problems will be further broken down in the next section: i. Cigarette smoking There are a lot of concerns involving the smoking problem among students. This situation is getting worse every day and required a faster and more effective solution. It is said that half of the number of men in Malaysia is smoking cigarettes. Of every 100 male students under 18 years old, 45-50 of them smoke cigarettes, with 30% of them came from the age of 12 until 18 years old. To make the matter worse, it is also found that the number of female teenagers who smoke cigarettes is increasing. Statistics shows that in 2000 until 2004, the number of female teenagers who smokes cigarettes increases from 4% to 6%. In addition, a study in 2004 shows that in each five female students, aged below 18, one of them is a cigarette smoker. These statistics shows the alarming state of Malaysian teenagers. The issue of cigarette smoking among school students is very concerning as they are in their teen years, in which they should have a better and healthier lifestyles. Therefore, the Ministry of Education had come up with a statement that this act should not be considered as a normal occurrence thus a quick action should be taken. (Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, 1983, p. 123) ii. Bullying and gangsterism According to Kamus Dewan, bullying is an act of “torturing and making fun of an individual who is trying to adjust to a new environment.” (DBP, 2002, p. 186). Bullying is act of making fun of a person or a group of minorities, usually done to a weaker person or group of individual with the purpose of scaring of the victims. Bullying case usually occurred in residential schools. Different from gangsterism, bullying acts are usually done by a few individuals and each of these individuals usually unrelated with each other. In addition, those who did the act of bullying will only team up for the particular act of bullying only. However, it is important to highlight that the bullying act could lead into gangsterism. Students who are involved in gangster groups will not only operate in school compounds but outside the school area as well. When the students have the sense of belonging in these groups, then fuelled with the desire to ‘prove their worth’ in these groups, they would be able to carry out various acts of deviance. Gangsterism in Malaysia is not an uncommon term. This phenomenon has been occurring since the colonial era. During this period, Ghee Hin and Hai San gangster groups are among the most infamous groups known. Interestingly, the goals and aims of these gangster groups are almost innocent at the beginning, which is for welfare and taking care of their members. However, nowadays, the concept had changed and the members of gangster groups are no longer limited to Chinese adults, but also opened to school students. Gangsterism is a national issue and it has been a major concern since the 1990s. Nevertheless, there is lack of effective solution for it. The situation is getting worse as it begins to affect students from both urban and rural areas. Gangsterism among school students ranged from smaller and less serious act of crime such as stealing, bullying and fighting and to more serious and devilish act of crime such as gang raping and others. From a study carried out from Malaysian School Division in 1986, 48 types of the act of deviance in Malaysian schools were listed down. From the number of sample (2,542,336), in which 1,077,534 of the students were primary school students, 112, 679 (4.4%) of the students had been exposed to various act of deviance. (Ramlan Hamzah, 1995, p. 135). Among those numbers, 5, 056 or 0.47% of the students had participated in fighting, which is one of gangsterism act. In addition, in a research from the Division of Research and Development of School Act from the Ministry of Education on the gangsterism act in daily schools, a shocking result was found especially in term of the participation of female students in a gangster-like acts such as fighting and immoral acts. (Dewan Siswa, 2005, p. 8). These findings, although from a huge range in date, shows that the act of gangsterism was and still apparent among school students in Malaysia. Referring to the success story of a school in Sarawak in implementing “Merit and Demerit Discipline System” (MDDS), it is hoped that the new approach are able to manage students’ disciplinary problems more systematically and affectively. 1.3 Purpose of Research Specifically, the research objectives of this study are as follow: i. To investigate the effectiveness of the use of demerit system in school in handling discipline problems; ii. To identify the percentage of the decrease of discipline problems through the implementation of demerit system; iii. To seek out the advantages and drawbacks of the demerit system on the students. 1.4 Research questions i. What are the effects of the implementation of demerit system in handling discipline problem in schools? ii. To what extent the demerit system contributes to the decrease of discipline problems in schools? iii. What are the advantages and drawbacks of the demerit system on the students? 1.5 Significance of study To research the effectiveness using MDDS in school discipline system in Malaysia to decrease the discipline issue. 1.6 Limitation of the research This research focuses on the school that had successfully used the demerit system. A cluster school in USJ Subang Jaya, SMK Seafield, was chosen as the sample. The purpose for the research is to look at the impacts when the system is used in the school, whether the administrators are able to manage the school more systematically and lessen the discipline problems. This research also seeks to examine the school principal’s leadership qualities that contribute to the success of the implementation of the demerit system. However, there are several identified limitations of the research, which include: i. Time constraint This research was conducted in a very short period of time, from September 2013 until December 2013. This reduce the amount of time for data collection process. More interviews and observation could be made, if only more time is given. ii. Study area A cluster school in USJ, Subang Jaya were selected as the sample of this research. Due to the fact that the research was done in only one school, the result of the research may not be applicable to every school in Malaysia. 1.7 Operational definition 1.7.1 Demerit system Listed are the rules and regulations for the demerit system: (Taken from: http://www.ssijb.edu.my) 1. Every student is given 100 merit points at the beginning of the year. 2. Every teacher has the right to subtract or add student’s merit point accordingly but the particular student must be informed for every addition or subtraction made. 3. Students can volunteer to any teachers for various voluntary tasks and merit points could be given by the teacher. (Maximum merit point given should not exceed 5 points) However, student could not request for any amount of points from the teacher. 4. The voluntary work could be arranged to be held on Saturdays or other day or periods outside the schooling hours. 5. SMD slip could be acquired from discipline teacher or in the SMD box located in Teachers’ Room. 6. Every form that has been fill in and signed by the respective teacher must be submitted into the SMD box located in the Teachers’ Room according to students’ form at the end of the week or at least, at the end of every month. 7. Discipline teachers should be informed for every disciplinary case which resulted on subtraction of more than 10 points. Teacher would only fill in the SMD points and let the discipline teachers to take further necessary actions. Discipline teachers will then fill in the SMD slip with the appropriate amount of marks to be deducted from the students and then re-submit the form into the respective SMD box. 8. Coordinating teachers will then collect all SMD forms and arrange it into respective classes and submit the forms to the SMD secretary. 9. SMD secretary will key in students’ updated merit point into the computer system. 10. Two copies of the update SMD points will then be distributed to coordinating teachers and form class teachers, one copy each. 11. The updated merit points will be displayed in the noticeboard on every 5th day of the month so that every student will be updated with their latest merit point accumulated or attained. This list of rules and regulations was taken from http://www.ssijb.edu.my, where the decrease of disciplinary case is seen one year of implementation of the system. There are a few other school organisations that had successfully implemented the system. 1.7.2 Comprehensive School-Wide Plan Certainly, fair and reasonable policies governing serious and chronic discipline problems, as well as the strategic use of rewards, should be part of a school-wide discipline program. However, effective schools make this only one part of a much more comprehensive plan. A comprehensive school-wide plan consists of a full range of evidence-based strategies and techniques to achieve four important goals: (a) developing student self-discipline, (b) preventing student discipline, (c) correcting student discipline, and (d) remediating and responding to serious and chronic discipline problems. Strategies for each of these components of comprehensive school-wide discipline follow. 1.7.3 Developing self-discipline Self-discipline is seen in socially and morally responsible behaviour that is motivated primarily by intrinsic factors, not solely by the anticipation of external rewards or fear of punishment such as using MDS’s. Research shows that self-discipline promotes positive relations with others and a positive school climate, fosters academic achievement, and promotes self-worth and emotional well-being. Strategies for developing self-discipline are commonly part of evidence-based programs for character education and for social and emotional learning. Such programs include the following strategies. Self-discipline can improve if student learn about the benefit of Merit point to increase self-achievement in get lot of merit point.