Ensuring success

Resourceful: SK Oh in Jerteh has dedicated LINUS corners including beneath staircases.

PETALING JAYA: The Literacy and Numeracy test (LINUS) continues to ensure lower primary pupils fully master reading, writing and arithmetic skills before moving on to upper primary level.

Government schools across the country are reporting many success stories involving Year One, Two and Three pupils, five years since the programme was first implemented.

For instance, in 2014, all Year Three pupils of SK Changkat Ibul in Taiping, Perak who had undergone the LINUS programme had passed the compulsory tests.

“The programme makes it easier for teachers to detect weak students from the first year itself, so we can take them out and provide effective programmes to aid learning.

“The difference in the students’ learning capabilities when they go through the programme is tremendous. All LINUS pupils in the school will pass the tests by the time they complete Year Three,” said SK Changkat Ibul headmistress Norlaila Abd Samad.

Under the LINUS programme, pupils would be monitored and subsequently tested after two months on where they stand on reading, writing and arithmetic skills.

Student-screening is done three times a year in March, June and September, to help identify those who do not meet the relevant standards.

Pupils focusing on their lesson activities.

Pupils will then be placed into the LINUS programme or into a special education programme if they have a learning disability.

“The committee uses many techniques to engage pupils and help them learn, including a performance dialogue, 10-minute reading sessions and intervention programmes. This year, we have a total of 180 pupils going through the LINUS tests from Year One to Three,” said Norlaila.

Success stories are not just limited to the peninsular, as SK Terusan Baru in Semporna, Sabah has also seen vast improvement in their pupils.

The school’s headmistress Norsiah Hinayat said LINUS guidelines were more detailed with stronger concepts, therefore easier to implement.

“After a certain period of assistance and the pupil does not improve, we will take the pupil for a medical assessment to determine if he or she is a special needs child.

“If the pupil is classified as special needs, he or she will be taken out of the programme and sent to a better - suited class or school,” she added.

Dedicated: A teacher giving close attention to pupils in a learning session at the special class for slow learners.

The Education Ministry’s National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) aims for all pupils without learning issues to master literacy and numeracy basics after three years of primary schooling.

Contents of the programme were chosen to provide sufficient knowledge to pupils to build a solid foundation for further studies at the upper primary level.

LINUS is compulsory in all primary government (SK), vernacular (SJK) and government - aided religious schools (SABK).

All activities are conducted by Bahasa Malaysia, Mathematics and reform (Pemulihan) teachers, and taught in a bilingual manner: English - Malay, English - Chinese and English - Tamil.

“LINUS helps teachers identify the weaknesses at an early stage, and act on them,” said Zuraidi Wahid, the headmaster of SK Oh in Jerteh, Terengganu.

SK Oh, he said, has two LINUS sections in the school - the LINUS class and the LINUS corner.

Zuraidi observed that many pupils visit the LINUS corner under a staircase of the school, which he said was an indication that students wanted something different from traditional classroom sessions.

“As such, the school has decided to transform all empty areas beneath the building’s staircases and the surrounding areas into LINUS corners,” he added.

On issues affecting the school’s 33 pupils between Year One and Three, Zuraidi said mastery of English was the main concern.

With LINUS as the main programme, the school also implemented additional programmes to help its pupils.

Zuraidi notes that SK Oh has a foster pupil programme, where teachers voluntarily “foster” pupils to monitor their developments.

“There is the Jalinan Kasih session between teachers, pupils and parents to update on the child’s progress, and we reward not only the best pupil but those who have shown improvement.

“Some teachers have also gone the extra mile by having special classes over the weekend,” he said.

By the end of Year One, a pupil under the programme should be able to read, write and understand a minimum of 500 simple sentences and words.

This increases to a minimum of 800 words and sentences with connecting words (kata sendi) by the end of Year Two, and a minimum of 1,000 words and simple sentences with connecting words in one paragraph by the end of Year Three.

Earlier this year, it was reported that 1.3 million pupils nationwide had undergone the LINUS test, with positive results.

English literacy rates among the first cohort (now in Year Two) increased from 63.3% to 78.3% compared to the last test, and more Year One pupils (70.2%) showed basic English literacy.