The effectiveness of a plan needs to take into account the views and cooperation of all sectors because everyone

will benefit from its implementation. Discuss.

Brainstorming - In your opinion, do you think that parents play an important role in their children's education? Why?

Before I answer the question, I would like to share where exactly the involvement of parents came in this plan. It is in one of the shift, which is Shift 9 Partner with parents, community, and private sector at scale. In this shift, it states that every parent will be an active partner in their childs learning, not only through the activities like report card and sports days, but also the parent-teacher association or Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru (PIBG) that provides input on school-based management matters. It means that, parents role and participation is highly recommended and needed in every schools.

I would like to call the parents as a stakeholder in a school. The role of a stakeholder is very important as they will create a learning ecosystem that reinforces the knowledge, skills and values taught to the students in school. In the plan, it is stated that parents will have better

understanding of how their children are developing and one of the way is by providing the parents the toolkit to guide parents on how to be more involved in schools *the star onlinegetting parents involve - Schools Management Division director Datuk Mazlan Mohamad said.

As for the answer to the question, how can the parents help contribute to realize the vision
stated in the National Education Blueprint? There are some suggestions to make, which are to establish regular and meaningful communication between home and school; to encourage active parent participation in student learning and to welcome parents as volunteer partners in schools activities.

If we relate it to the school, which is SK Pusat Lawas, the parents there should be more aware of their childrens development by always alert to the schools latest news. The toolkit is one of a good idea for parents participation however the school and the parents cannot rely too much on the toolkit, because for interior schools like this school, not all families has the access to a computer. Therefore, one of the ways is, the parents can suggest to the school to produce more simple things like newsletters or school and parent magazine, in order to inform parents and community members about school activities, developments and initiatives. Through this way, the parents will be well aware of the schools activities and they will not simply left out on anything. Therefore, when there are things like the newsletter or the magazines, it will be easier for the parents to plan the activities that will help the school in many ways possible. The PIBG should help the school to produce the newsletter and magazine and not just rely to the school to do it alone. When these two parties are involved actively and work together, it will not be a problem.

Here is an example of a schools newsletter by one school from England which is The Henry Box School. This newsletter is the one made by the parents association with the help of the school. They will produce it every month and distribute it to all the parents so that they will know what is happening to the school and what ways can they help the school.

This Educational Blueprint also suggests that every PIBG will be invited to provide input on the curriculum and teacher quality, starting from year 2016. Therefore, in the future, the role
of the PIBG is to work collaboratively with school leadership to improve student outcomes. Specifically, the PIBGs will be invited to provide input on how the school can make the national curriculum more relevant to the needs of the community and to provide feedback on the quality of teaching and learning experienced by their children or to find solutions to any issue. This means parental support to take on roles as supplementary coaches and teachers for school activities. As in SK Pusat Lawas, the pupils here are still weak in most of the core subjects such as English, Maths and Science. For suggestions, what parents can do to help is to provide all the parents with a list of required achievements for the subject taught in school. Then, PIBG can also plan an activity to invite families to share hopes for and concerns about children and then

work together to set student goals. Like what Justine said during the brainstorming, PIBG will have meetings on how to help students to boost their exam result. As example, Project Tutor to help students in Math and Science or even other subjects. They can invite parents or speakers and motivators to come and give talks and motivations to the students. They can even do programs like English Language Camp and they have to work together with the school to make it happen. Like what Verin said, one of parents role is to ask for sponsors from NGO to make these activities possible. While planning and participating with all those activities at the same time, the relationship between the parents and teachers are getting better, plus if it is a school like SK Pusat, when they are all from different ethnic groups, they will know better about each other throughout the process. Here, what I am trying to say is, it is not just the school role to make sure that the students are fully equipped with a good curriculum but parents should also being involve because they know their children better. Thats why they have to sit and discuss with other parents and come out with ideas and activities to help their children to do better in schools. Thats what the plan is all about higher participation from parents to help their children holistically.

My last point is the parents as volunteer partner in school. The involvement of parents does not mean only for academic purposes. They can also come to the school and help the school and other pupils who are in need. As example, in SK Pusat Lawas, there are still some facilities of the school that is not in a very good condition. Like *pictures parents can work together to do activities like fund raising activities and earn some money to be donated to the school so that the school can use it to improve on the facilities. The parents can come to the school every month and work together with the teacher and the pupils clean the school for gotong royong. I believe that for an interior school like SK pusat Lawas, the parents there are more than happy to help and volunteer to help the school in any ways possible because they are doing it for the sake of their children. Another thing to add is, there are some pupils in this school who came from poor family. Parents can help them by came up together to donate some cloths, books or stationeries to the pupils. They can also come up with the idea on how to help pupils if there is something bad happen to them like accidents involving the family members or anything. Like what Farah and Firlland said, parents are the role models to their children, so parents should show good examples to their children. Parents should work together and volunteer to come up with a good plan for the school.

Thats all thank you.

(second question) In my opinion, this educational blueprint is a plan that involves the participation of all sectors. These sectors will help each other to make sure that the transformation of our education is achieved. Therefore I believe that if every sector, from the government, NGOs, parents and communities works together to achieve the objectives of this plan, it will become a success. This plan has already consider all the aspects in order to carve out a brighter, bolder future for all Malaysian childrenan ambitious mandate, but an inspiring one. It is the responsibility of every single Malaysian to work towards making these aspirations a reality, and it is only through all stakeholders working together that all Malaysian children will get the future they truly deserve.