Australia tipped to lose one in 10 university jobs

Australia tipped to lose one in 10 university jobs
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/diminished-capacity-australia-tipped-to-lose-one-in-10-university-jobs-20200930-p560mv.html

Why does this happen? Ask our prime minister and his ministers to enrol in a diplomatic relation and communication course.

I shall discuss this in another blog in regards to how other countries benefited from Australia own action, leading to the demise of international education industry demise.

Thank you for reading.

Australia tipped to lose one in 10 university jobs

Students told to reject Box Hill TAFE after it waters down free course

Posted to Facebook on 31/7/2020 11:29 AM
Commenting on “Students told to reject Box Hill TAFE after it waters down free course"
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/students-told-to-reject-box-hill-tafe-after-it-waters-down-free-course-20200212-p54082.html

My hours of teaching at TAFEs dropped drastically when the funding cut was so severe. The cut was due to the smart Alec advisers and policy makers who came out with some ill-conceived ideas about market competition allowing private enterprises to open private colleges.

The quality of TAFE was not that bad when I started in the mid-90’s, but began to deteriorate when more and more overseas students came for further studies.

Early batches of students from Korea and Japan were good, hardworking and not spoilt brat. Of course, there were exceptions, but they belong to the minority.

The Indians and mainland China arrived in large numbers. The Indians were ok with English, but they came here with the intention to work to earn money to send to their families back in India. Many Chinese students were from families who were loaded, and to some extent, they were more like getting rid of the good riddance

Thank you for reading. 

Students told to reject Box Hill TAFE after it waters down free course

China's school kids are now the smartest in the world

Posted to Facebook on 31/7/2020 11:03 AM
Commenting on “https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/students-told-to-reject-box-hill-tafe-after-it-waters-down-free-course-20200212-p54082.html”
https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2019/12/544468/chinas-schoolkids-are-now-smartest-world

Throughout history, education helps many poor people break out from the poverty cycle.

While some of these poor people that made it to the top worked very hard to self-support financially, many did have to be supported by parents, loved ones or people that have faith in them, because education was and is neither cheap nor free.

For decades if not centuries, wealthier countries seem to give their citizens a head start by promoting and providing free education for early learning age and primary schooling citizens.

Besides provision of Human Resources, some wealthier countries provide a lot more facilities, hoping the the students will excel in their academic performance.

From my personal experience, the latter assumption may not guarantee high success rate.

Chinese teaching styles and learning styles are very different from the Western education system. Chinese characters are single words not made up of a combination of alphabets.

Written in the traditional style, many of the characters can be identified by looking at the root words or radicals that form the word, and sometimes the pronunciation can be guessed. Unlike English words which are to great extent phonic, the Chinese words are tonal and almost all Chinese words have their unique sound.

That is why learning Chinese really begins with memorisation of words and their associated sound. This is the start of the rote system if learning.

I am a firm believer of rote learning, a system of repetition and drilling. The whole idea to get the information into our brain and stored for future use.

We all have two states of mind - the conscious and sub-conscious states. While we pay attention, our conscious mind is at work, in addition to our eavesdropping sub-conscious mind. Unfortunately, the things stored away by sub-conscious mind may not be in well organised manner and retrieval can be a bit difficult.

Repetition is a reinforcement, so that the sub-conscious mind is just as aware as the conscious mind.

Thank you for reading.

China's schoolkids are now the smartest in the world

China’s ‘wonder kids’ are literally too good to be true

Posted to Facebook on 21/7/2020 11:45 PM
Commenting on “China’s ‘wonder kids’ are literally too good to be true"
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3093813/chinas-wonder-kids-are-literally-too-good-be-true

I doubt some students who score top marks at school are really top performers, or whether their achievement is the result of their tutors or parents.

Do students go for tuition or helped by their parents understand the subjects better than the rest of the students who do not? My suspicion is that some tutors or the parents are the ghost writers doing the work or projects.

I prefer to teach students the problem solving methods, and give them enough clues to find the reference or source information to solve them. I normally explain the necessary terminology and definition before I proceed with a new chapter or topic.

It is always important give examples whenever possible, and explain in voice rather than just written words. However, if the examples can be shown on a whiteboard as well, then the students are assured of using more senses to digest the explanation.

Additionally, I also ask students to paraphrase what they have learnt.

I prefer to teach my students how to fish than to give them the fish

Thank you for reading.

China’s ‘wonder kids’ are literally too good to be true

Parents and children remote learning during the COVID-19 pandenic - 2

Posted to Facebook on 17/7/2020 5:51 PM
Commenting on “Parents and student children remote learning"

I have pointed out many times that far too many parents rely on others to raise their children, or outsource their child raising responsibility to childcare centre or after school carerers, school teachers or nannies.

When their children are bullied in cyberspace, the parents do not seek advice or coaching to help their children to deal with the problem. How difficult is it to turn off the computer or modem when the children are faced with cyber bullying?

It is most amazing that many educated parents can't help their children with their school work. Did the parents passed their primary or junior college (in the US)? A parents can follow the teaching concurrently with he child. If an adult can't follow the lesson, how can we expect the children to follow or learn?

Online learning or remote learning by the students without the presence of a teacher is definitely NOT on. The effective way is online teaching or remote teaching, where the students are to attend the cyberspace class with the teacher present as the host.

I am not a teacher but only a volunteer. Before the lockdown, I used to assist teachers to coach or deal with students who require more attention. At present, I am not able to help the school because of health risk, privacy and security reasons.

A good teacher can command the attention of the students either face-to-face in a real environment or in cyberspace.

China tries to step up pressure on Australia with warning to students

Posted to Facebook on 10/6/2020 2:33 AM
Commenting on “China tries to step up pressure on Australia with warning to students”
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3088254/china-seeks-step-pressure-australia-warning-students-risk

My warning about Australian government kept antagonising China would backfire, jeopardising Australian export, international education and tourism is not ill-founded.

It took a lot of hard work for late former PM Gough William to pave the way to Beijing, and developed relationship with China. It also benefited the US President Nixon to have dialogue with China through the Ping Pong diplomacy. Former PM Kelvin Rudd also played a role in reinforcing that relationship during his term in office.

Why must the Coalition especially the Liberal component behave so poorly to create unnecessary tension with China? With a big financial sink hole caused by the Coronavirus pandemic to fill, Australian economic downward slide may not see daylight for a long, long time without the injection of money from the major investor, China.

Should the economy continue to go south, the only way to reverse the trend is to have a new government with a totally different set of foreign policies, including reduced association with the US, and be more independent to stand up to the allies, who are bullies in disguise.

May God save Australia!

Thank you for reading.

China tries to step up pressure on Australia with warning to students

Parents and children remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

Posted to Facebook on 10/5/2020 3:49 PM
Parents and children remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the real professional teachers are not with the students face-to-face. The valuable, positive contribution to the students' wellbeing, especially the young children's, is being realised.

Many parents of younger students find themselves helpless to coach and assist their children with online study. Shouldn't parents take some time to reflect on how they have contributed towards the upbringing of their children, preparing them to face and deal with unforeseen expectation and uncertainty in life?

Thank you for reading.

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life

Reposted to Facebook on 9/5/2020 10:37 AM Posted to Empty Vessel (1/4/2016) on 3 April 2016 at 9:16 AM Commenting on “A Letter to Singapore Parents” https://iantan.org/2016/04/a-letter-to-singapore-parents/

It is a norm that most people want more things and more throughput but not prepare to supply more input. Every new generation, new replaces the old, whether it is technology, fashion, concept, management style, food, parenting method, education, etc.

Instead of just making ends meet, many choose to climb much higher in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ladder at the expense of the fundamental need of parental love and care for the children; I do mean substitution of love by materialistic items.

As a spherical thinking educator, I am in favour of old style “teaching” including spelling, dictation, and “repeat after me” reading, plus practical logical and cognitive learning

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life the moment the child comes to the world. Parents attend school to learn English, maths, cooking, public relation, finance, and all sorts of subjects trying to achieve a brighter and better future, but they forget they have already brought the future to the world, their child. Parents do not “attend” classes on how to cope with and prepare the child, because parenting classes are hard to find. They blame their forebear for making their generation rebellious or what they have become, but never question what sort of a child they will bring up.

The difficulties faced by previous generation were that most chores were done manually and information was at a premium. They did not have the opportunity and luxury to “learn”. Unfortunately, parents of today are too lazy to learn despite the advancement in technology, and therefore they have no idea how to communicate with their children.

There is no one size fits all education system. It is evitable that the students of today have to learn more, some old but mainly new subjects. The society is getting more complex and speed of progress is getting faster. Parents can stay at the bus stop, drive in slow speed lane or the take the highway. The means and therefore the end result will be entirely different.

Apathy is the cause of all down fall. Contribute and voice your positive ideas; don’t just knock others’ without giving a good counter reason.

Why the university system is failing our graduates

Posted to Facebook on 30/4/2020 2:05 PM
Commenting on “Why the university system is failing our graduates”
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/work/2019/10/22/australian-university-graduate-jobs/

This news article was from 22 October 2019. If there was a problem for graduates to find jobs after graduation, what are the chances now after the coronavirus pandemic?

I had a chat with a FB friend yesterday over Messenger, and I discussed about why graduates should try to land themselves with a job relevant to what they had studied, before considering going for higher degree.

For years, I encouraged many students to take up an Advanced Diploma courses from TAFE, find a job and then find pathway to complete a degree later. It takes less time to complete an Advanced Diploma course than a degree, cost less, but has the advantage of having the core materials covered, relevant to fulfil the employment requirement.

Some TAFE and VET courses are more hands-on and practical, thus makes a TAFE graduates more employable.

As for future promotion, it is up to the individual to pursue further study.

Employers are looking for more than a degree or Advanced Diploma, and I shall discuss this more in later blogs.

Thank you for reading.

Why the university system is failing our graduates

Worried parents ask principals to take their kids

Posted to Facebook on 16/4/2020 10:29 PM
Posted to The Age (16/4/2020) on 16/4/2020
Commenting on “Worried parents ask principals to take their kids”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/we-can-t-do-this-worried-parents-ask-principals-to-take-their-kids-20200416-p54kk1.html

If parents can’t help their children in home schooling and home work, does it mean that many parents have low level of literacy and numeracy? It’s time some of these parents should re-enrol in a primary school.

Far too often, parents point fingers at teachers for not doing their job educating the children. It is time that the society must realise schools are the best and cheapest childcare centres around.

Respect the teachers, support the teachers.

Thank you for reading.

Worried parents ask principals to take their kids

No more Zoom for home-based learning after hackers show obscene photos to Singapore students

Posted to Facebook on 10/4/2020 11:16 PM
Commenting on “No more Zoom for home-based learning after hackers show obscene photos to Singapore students”
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hackers-hijack-home-based-lessons-on-zoom-to-allegedly-show-obscene-photos-to-children

Zoom video conferencing users beware.

Lack of security enables hackers to join the chat room. Read the attached news article from Singapore, banning use of Zoom school online home-based lessons. Zoom attracts Zoom bombing, like what the school children have experienced.

Zoom's security flaws have led to a number of organizations, companies, and schools banning or restricting its use.

Government and government agencies banning such use include NASA, Taiwan, Australian Defence Force, German Foreign Ministry, US Senate.

Google also ban its employees using Zoom on company-owned desktop and laptop computers, and administrators will disable it this week.

Many people with no knowledge or do not care about cyber security jump into the band wagon because it is the in-thing during this coronavirus pandemic, will be get more than they bargained for, and likely have their video conferencing posted to other media without their consent.

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Away from Zoom.

Thank you for reading.

No more Zoom for home-based learning after hackers show obscene photos to Singapore students

Every graduate should have a good understanding of Marketing

Posted to Facebook on 4/2/2020 8:46 PM
Every graduate should have a good understanding of Marketing

Written on 4 February 2020

Every graduate should have a good understanding of Marketing, including the technique of selling products and services.

The graduate is the product and what they can offer are the services.

In one of my early careers, I was a professional cake decorator cum marketer. No matter how beautiful my creation and masterpiece was, it just looked beautiful and that was all. It did not feed my ”empty stomach”, so to say. That beautiful cake had to be sold to exchange for money, and for that I had to convince the market, the arena where exchanges took place, that the beautiful cake had its worth and value.

Graduates need to be able to market themselves as a total package, the person and what that person possesses in the grey matter.

Thank you for reading.

My Story - Volunteering at a primary school

Posted to Facebook on 31/3/2020 3:44 AM
My Story - Volunteering at a primary school"

I am very fortunate that the school I volunteer in trusted me to assist teachers in three different Years in a single day.

In a normal class, a teacher can only use one method (teaching style) to teach the students. However, when the class teacher assigned me to help small groups each are generally of the same competence level, I can use different techniques to help them understand better.

In my opinion the problem is not about the class size, but the student mix. It does not matter how a young teacher is mentored, they will still be frustrated because the one-size-fits-all method will not achieve an optimal outcome. It is sad that the system got rid of streaming, and therefore the end result is that the overall performance is just average. That my be what Australian culture is about - chopping down the tall poppies!

How can a young teacher deal with a student rolling on the floor crying, or the student keeps saying she is a failure? How can a young teacher cope with naughty or mischievous students who cannot be punished or reprimanded? How can a young teacher just use generic words to describe exact nature of the students' behaviour or the actual performance of the students in the "report card"?

It is not just the young teachers having problems. In fact many experienced teachers are as stressed and frustrated when they write the individual reports.

Thank you for reading.

'Worst since 1932': Two million Aussies face unemployment queue

Posted to Facebook on 24/3/2020 at 9:53 PM
'Worst since 1932': Two million Aussies face unemployment queue
'Worst since 1932': Two million Aussies face unemployment queue

I am very vocal and I really don’t like a lot of the interviewers and interviewing techniques used by the employment agency consultants, HR representatives and potential employers.

The terminologies used are no more than jargons, and normally fairly new in the vocabulary. Unless the job seekers have just finished a management course in tertiary education, there is a Buckley’s chance that they can understand what they interviewers are talking about.

One typical example is about being a team player. Without having worked in that specific company or organisation, how does one know about it’s team dynamics, and therefore whether one can fit in. Then there are words like hard skills and soft skills.

Some of the advertisements are just plain ridiculous and expect too much. Unfortunately, these are written just as a formality, because the position is meant for someone awaits to be promoted internally but due to organisation policies that the position has to be advertised externally.

Cities go into lockdown, and many businesses especially fashion, hospitality, entertainment, motor vehicle and tourism and all related industries will close for good. No one has ever imagined such a disaster can ever happen leading to depression.

No one knows when this pandemic will end, and how much longer can any government pour money in to support the businesses, workers who have been stood down and casual workers who could not find work to subsidise their income. Many businesses may not survive and even if there is a restart button, some businesses will take much longer to rebuild.

Those unemployed former employment consultants, HR experts and business owners will be queuing up to compete with a lot of others. These people will understand some of prejudices they had before, and how difficult is to be across am interviewing panel bombarded with questions only the quick minded can handle.

The negative impact of this disastrous pandemic on private schools is more visible than the public sector. I did challenge the usefulness of the lush green carpet grass school field, swimming pool, gymnasium, posh canteen, etc. These do not come into the equation of education system proper.

For those loyal followers of my real estate blogs, you probably have heard enough about my asking you to save, save and save for rainy days, and never jump in to invest on negatively geared properties. I think my advice is spot on. My prediction about the negative impact on the real estate industry has come true. Auctions and property inspection are halted during the current state of emergency and the imposition of self-distancing rule on public gathering.

After all that being said, do not get disappointed, disillusion and get yourself into a state of depression. You have a lot of spare time, and use this time wisely to self-improve yourself, not only in terms of knowledge, but also outlook in life. This is also the time to reconsider your next career path.

In one of my blogs, I explained economy will stay stagnant if money does not flow by changing hand. Until consumer confidence returns, that is when people perceive to have financial stability again, money will be saved rather than spent.

The economic recovery takes time, and you must remain strong, physically and mentally.

Thank you for reading.

'Worst since 1932': Two million Aussies face unemployment queue

How a Springvale school overcame disadvantage and blitzed NAPLAN

Posted to Facebook on 21/4/2020 at 10:16 AM
Commenting on "How a Springvale school overcame disadvantage and blitzed NAPLAN"
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/how-a-springvale-school-overcame-disadvantage-and-blitzed-naplan-20200320-p54ca5.html

It is nothing to do with the best school canteen, green carpet grass school field, swimming pool or the best equipped science laboratory, but the effort put in for quality teaching.

Many schools market through glossy advertisement and promotional material as well as on multi-media. Some also spend big for a few seconds air time on television.

There are quiet achievers that target at the students’ shortcomings and find ways to improve on the them, rather than on the parents’ hip pockets.

So, when you enrol your child in the forthcoming year, find out more about the history of the school, and compare how much you have subsidise those posh facilities that your child will never use.

Thank you for reading.

How a Springvale school overcame disadvantage and blitzed NAPLAN

It is unimportant mathematics and science be taught in English

Posted to Facebook on 21/3/2020 9:08 AM
It is unimportant mathematics and science be taught in English"

English language is like Lego blocks. With the blocks, one can build small figurines as well as gigantic castles or even spaceships.

When one talks about Maths and Science subjects, they do not realise these are more than just subjects that can be taught in English language or any language with any loss in translation. Both subjects contain special languages, and technically speaking, more advanced papers can be written incorporating these special languages.

Historically China was great in many branches of maths, but the lack of Positional representation of numbers, and maths symbols, China fell behind in the development of powerful maths. In the ancient time in China, a number is written in words rather than Arabic-Hindu numerals.

Science formula and information of elements shown in a Periodic table are not normal English sentences conforming to the proper grammatical construct. They have their own rules and syntax.

There are debates going on in some countries whether maths and science be taught in English, my answer is "that's unimportant".

Thank you for readding.

'Mass confusion': Classrooms thin out as parents pull kids from school

Posted to Facebook on 17/3/2020 at 12:04 PM
Commenting on “'Mass confusion': Classrooms thin out as parents pull kids from school”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/mass-confusion-classrooms-thin-out-as-parents-pull-kids-from-school-20200316-p54aly.html

This is why I am so dissatisfied with the state Government and Chief Medical Officer of their wish-washy instructions and indecision in closing the schools.

The number of deaths caused by the COVID-19 has been estimated by some experts to be between 50,000 and 150,000. Why don’t theses procrastinating pendulums just call the shot to close down the schools now, just like the Grand Prix?

Is it possible to have social distancing between teachers and students? Have they seen how Prep or lower primary school children behave in the classrooms, and in the school yard? Do teachers just let the little angels walk by themselves, or stay 4 feet away?

The news article in the following Comment presents a totally different view by the author why keeping the schools open for the sake of the kids.

I believe this is the opportune time for the Education Department or educators to develop and implement online remote teaching classes, like using Google Education / Classroom, a concept that has been in my mind for a long time.

In fact some less sophisticated form of webinar or podcast have been around, and even church services are recorded for the absent congregation.

There are many factors that hinder the use of such method, particularly the cost factor whether to be borne by the parents, and how well the students can operate the computer or similar devices.

Thank you for reading.

'Mass confusion': Classrooms thin out as parents pull kids from school

The future of work won’t be about college degrees, it will be about job skills

Posted to Facebook on 16/3/2020 at 11:06 AM
Commenting on "The future of work won’t be about college degrees, it will be about job skills"
https://bit.ly/2x9Nyb7

If everyone has similar job skills, the competition will still exist and no one is wiser. The most important factor to win the race is to be a multi-disciplinarian.

The is no one-size-fits-all job, and college degrees are equally important. Many courses need to be modified to adapt to market requirements.

I have been advocating that all people, obviously include students as well, should have a good understanding of marketing.

Successful marketing is about knowing consumer and buyer psychology, and match their needs and wants. Having job skills, therefore, may not match the potential needs and wants of the employers, and give the wrong idea to the future job seekers that it is the panacea to secure a job.

Thank you for reading.

The future of work won’t be about college degrees, it will be about job skills

My Story - A day with the Preppy

Posted to Facebook on 14/3/2020 at 1:11 PM
A day with the Preppy

Written on 29 February 2020

After a long break, I returned to the Prep class again on Tuesday 24 February, I arrived just about 5 minutes early, and the door of the single storey building to the classrooms was closed, but not locked.

There was a long queue of students accompanied by their parents. I think the parents were just as eager to get in the building than the students.

I opened the door of the building which housed several classrooms. Class teacher Mrs G had not arrived yet; so I roamed round and checked out what were on the display boards and on the wall in the classroom.

Mrs G arrived, and opened the door for the anxious parents and students to come in. Overall, they were were well behaved; the cute children walked in a single file but some were holding on to their parents. Surprisingly, none was in tears.

The noise of the excited students and the parents broke the silence. Many parents spoke with the children in Mandarin, while the rest in English. The parents helped the kiddies’ to locate their respective cubical storage to put away their bags and lunch boxes.

There were hardly any Caucasian students, about 10% of the total class enrolment.

Mrs G introduced me to the young students, and they would addressed me as Mr Chan from then on.

The students learn the phonic pronunciation. That is not something I am in favour of.

Thank you for reading.

Logic and creative hemispheres of the brain affect students liking STEM subjects

Posted to Facebook 8/3/2020 1:31 AM
Logic and creative hemispheres of the brain affect students liking STEM subjects

Written on 8 March 2020

Some people have developed well logic part of the brain, or left hemisphere, and they tend to be more capable in handling STEM subjects. For others, they are like to struggle to well in those subjects.

Conversely, people who have well developed cognitive or creative part of the brain,or right hemisphere tend to paint, dance, act better or have greater understanding and appreciation of arts.

I have been volunteering in a primary school, helping students in maths ranging from Prep to Year 6. I have been given a free hand by the teachers to help students with learning difficulty.

There are many reasons why some cannot do well, not only in maths but also in other subjects. In general, it has nothing to do with brain development.

It takes time, patience and power of observation to unlock each individual's problems.

I have tried and successfully helped a number of students by building up their confidence, self-esteem, changing mindset, showing them how to approach problems from different angles, etc.

Once the blockage is realised and unblocked, the students can be left to their own devices.

The teachers appreciate my effort very much, and invite me back term after the term, and the Principal and Assistant Principals treat me like another staff member.

Thank you for reading.