There are many issues that are brought up in the three presented papers in the seminar

that show a thorough study of the opportunities and challenges encountered by teachers in
curbing inequalities in educational opportunities. This essay discusses only the three main
issues which are stated by the presenters in the seminar.

First, the issue that is raised up by the first speaker in the seminar is the establishment
of a culturally friendly environment in classrooms to overcome the inequalities in the education.
According to the first speaker, Mr. Omar, a culturally friendly environment can be defined as a
positive and conducive environment in where students from diverse ethnics and cultural
backgrounds accept the existing cultural diversity and work together to undergo an equal and
optimal learning process. Establishment of a culturally and friendly climate that forbids the
emergence of inequalities in the education in the multiracial classroom is a very challenging
mission for teachers as the great disparity in the cultural backgrounds and exerts a substantial
influence on the students behaviours in the classroom. Students bring not only differing racial
and ethnic heritages in a classroom, but also a vast variety of cultural backgrounds which refer
to the way they brought. For instance, students who are from uneducated and uncivilized
communities become the highly disruptive group of students in the class compared to the
students from civilized community. The disruptive behaviours of some students cause major
interruption in the dissemination of knowledge by teachers and possess a negative impact on
the behaviours as well as academic performances of other students. This scenario shows the
excellent students are subjected to the inequality as their pursuit of knowledge is interrupted by
the acts of disruptive students. Thus, in order to solve the inequality in the education and create
a culturally and friendly environment, teachers should have a good understanding of cultural
diversity so that they can address the diverse cultural background of students at the very
beginning stage and change the undesirable behaviours of students. Besides, the establishment
of rules and procedures helps teachers in expressing their expectations clearly to students and
controlling the misbehaviours that leads to existence of inequality in the education. Usage of
rewards in the form of tangible and non tangible is also an alternative way that a teacher can
use in order to minimize the disruptive behaviours in the classroom so that every individual can
undergo an optimal learning process in the classroom.
 The next paper which is presented by the second speaker, Professor Madyah, Dr. Rosli,
examines the inequality that occurs in the educational opportunities due to the gender
discrimination. According to him, the application of cultural beliefs of certain ethnic groups in the
multiethnic classroom leads to gender discrimination. For instance, there are still parents in the
rural areas shows great interest in educating males compared to females because they have
the notion that the primary role of a female is home making. The existence of such notion
forbids the female students from rural areas to excel in education as the males do and leads to
inequality in education. This scenario also becomes a challenge for teachers where they need
to reshape the perception of the parents about the importance of educating the women and
develop the learning potential of women in order to bridge the gap between males and women
that caused by the gender inequality. One of ways to eliminate this inequality in the field of
education is teachers can explain the importance and benefits of educating women in this new
era of globalization to parents through the discussion and urge the parents to motivate and
provide opportunities for their daughters to pursue education to the higher level. Moreover,
teachers can also give extra care and attention to female students from remote areas during the
teaching process and motivate them to study by providing rewards such as books and
stationeries which they are not afford to buy.

Competency of a teacher is another issue that is clearly expounded in the seminar by

the third prensenter, Dr. Zakri bin Abdullah in order to put an end to the escalating inequality in
the educational opportunities. In his presentation, he states that competent teachers will always
strive to equip themselves with a vast knowledge and adapt the 21 st century skills that emerge
from the globalization in the education such as the ICT skills, critical skills and creative skills
whereas the incompetent teachers will have a limited knowledge and a limited access to current
changes in the field of teaching. According to him, the presence of incompetent teachers in the
classrooms is one of the primary causes for the inequality that exists in the education because
the competent teachers can produce excellent students compared to incompetent teachers. For
instance, students who are produced by a competent teacher can compete in the arena of
education in a global scale through the online learning (frogVLE), online conference and e-
forum as they are exposed to the technological gadgets, ICT skills as well as critical and
creative skills. In contrary, students who are trained under an incompetent teacher possess a
limited knowledge on the usage of technological gadgets and a limited access to the ICT skills.
The biggest challenge that faced by most teachers in this scenario is the competency level of
them. In order to overcome the inequality in education that is caused by the incompetent
teachers, they should take efforts to equip themselves with the current teaching skills in
accordance to the globalization in the education. They also have to ensure that they broach the
students to the current learning skills such as ICT skills and critical and creative skills so that
they can produce competent students in future.

In conclusion, educators must play their significant roles well in managing the
multicultural classroom in order to ensure the pupils get the equal educational opportunities
regardless of race, cultural practices and socio-economy status.