RENUNGAN BERSAMA...

Peningkatan Status Kelayakan Guru Prasekolah di Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia

Kejayaan program pendidikan prasekolah banyak bergantung kepada penghayatan, kemahiran dan sikap guru. Peranan guru prasekolah adalah kompleks kerana dari semasa ke semasa tuntutan mengenai keperluan peranan guru prasekolah berubah dan bertambah. Peranan guru prasekolah sebagai pendidik adalah penting sebagai pembina insan yang bakal menerajui negara di masa akan datang.

Perkhidmatan keguruan telah banyak mengalami perubahan sejak zaman sebelum merdeka sehinggalah kini. Kelayakan seseorang guru dalam sistem pendidikan formal adalah selari dengan peredaran zaman. Jika diimbas kembali, kita dapat melihat perkembangan kelayakan asas akademik guru yang mengajar di sekolah di negara kita berubah dengan begitu cepat. Dalam sistem pendidikan di negara kita, selain daripada kelayakan akademik terdapat pengkhususan dalam bidang pengajaran. Guru-guru di Malaysia dilatih untuk mengajar dalam bidang-bidang tertentu di sekolah. Pengkhususan bidang ini termasuklah bidang pendidikan awal kanak-kanak atau prasekolah. Latar belakang akademik yang dimiliki oleh seseorang guru dapat membantu meningkatkan kecemerlangan pendidikan di Malaysia.

Pada peringkat awal penubuhan prasekolah ‘Annex’ di Kementerian Pelajaran pada Disember tahun 1991, sebanyak 986 kelas prasekolah berjaya dilaksanakan di beberapa buah sekolah rendah Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. Guru-guru yang mengajar di kelas prasekolah pada masa itu adalah guru-guru berkelulusan sijil perguruan asas yang mendapat latihan di Maktab-maktab perguruan. Mereka dilatih dan diberi kursus dalam perkhidmatan selama 14 minggu terlebih dahulu dalam bidang prasekolah sebelum dibenarkan mengajar di prasekolah. Pada Disember 1993, guru-guru terlatih kumpulan pertama yang memiliki pengkhususan sijil perguruan asas yang mendapat latihan selama dua tahun setengah dalam bidang pendidikan awal kanak-kanak mula mengajar di kelas-kelas prasekolah Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia.

Pada tahun 1997, Bahagian Pendidikan Guru Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia mula melatih guru-guru pelatih untuk mendapatkan diploma pendidikan prasekolah. Guru-guru kumpulan pertama diploma pendidikan perguruan ini mula ditempatkan di sekolah pada Julai 2000. Pada tahun 2002, guru prasekolah berijazah mula ditempatkan di prasekolah. Pada masa itu, kebanyakan guru prasekolah berijazah terdiri daripada guru yang memiliki Sijil Perguruan Asas yang melanjutkan pelajaran di Universiti Malaya. Pada pandangan saya, mereka merupakan pelopor kepada pensiswazahan guru prasekolah. Dengan adanya senario ini, sebenarnya telah membuka mata banyak pihak bahawa pendidikan prasekolah merupakan pendidikan yang penting dan memerlukan guru yang berkelayakan untuk mendidik kanak-kanak di peringkat prasekolah. Sebagaimana kelas prasekolah di luar negara seperti United Kingdom, Amerika Syarikat, Itali, dan lain-lain guru prasekolah adalah terdiri daripada mereka yang mempunyai kelayakan sekurang-kurangnya ijazah pertama malahan ramai yang sudah memiliki ijazah kedoktoran.

Perkembangan positif ini membuktikan bahawa kerajaan memandang kepentingan pendidikan prasekolah di Malaysia. Kerajaan juga sedar kepentingan pendidikan prasekolah bagi membentuk asas jati diri dan sahsiah kanak-kanak dalam pembangunan masa depan negara. Oleh itu, menjadi dasar Kementerian Pelajaran untuk memastikan guru-guru yang mengajar kelas prasekolah terdiri daripada guru-guru yang berkelayakan, berkemahiran dan terlatih dalam bidang pendidikan awal kanak-kanak atau prasekolah.

Justeru itu, Kerajaan sentiasa mempertingkatkan kelayakan pendidikan guru sehinggalah sekarang sudah ada guru prasekolah yang mempunyai kelayakan ijazah pertama dan ijazah kedua mengajar di kelas-kelas prasekolah Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. Meningkatnya status kelayakan guru prasekolah bermakna semakin mendalam ilmu yang dimiliki oleh seseorang guru prasekolah. Pengetahuan atau kemahiran yang diperolehi oleh guru itu membolehkan seseorang guru menggunakan ilmu yang dipelajari untuk mempelbagaikan kaedah dan gaya penyampaian dalam pengajarannya. Oleh itu, murid akan memahami pengajaran yang disampaikan dengan lebih mudah. Hal ini adalah kerana dalam pendidikan prasekolah, guru hendaklah kreatif dalam mempelbagaikan pendekatan, kaedah, serta teknik pengajaran dan pembelajaran agar dapat membantu kanak-kanak memperkembangkan diri, keupayaan, bakat, dan minat kanak-kanak.

http://unitprasekolahjpnt.blogspot.com/2010/02/peningkatan-status-kelayakan-guru.html

3 dead, including gunman, in Oregon mall shooting

http://news.yahoo.com/3-dead-including-gunman-oregon-mall-shooting-014507348.html

                            

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos and disbelief as a gunman wearing some sort of camouflage outfit and a white mask shot an initial burst of fire and then more rounds at Clackamas Town Center. Shoppers tried to find safe areas as teams of police officers began entering the mall to find the shooter.

Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes said later that the gunman was dead, but he wouldn't say how he died or provide any details about him.

Authorities were going store-to-store to secure the scene and to escort hiding shoppers outside, but Rhodes said there was no indication that there was more than one shooter.

Austin Patty, 20, who works at Macy's, said he saw a man in a white mask carrying a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest.

He heard the gunman say "I am the shooter," as if announcing himself, Patty said. He then fired several shots paced seconds apart.

A series of rapid-fire shots in short succession followed. Patty said he ducked to the ground, then ran.

His Macy's co-worker, Pam Moore, told The Associated Press the gunman was short, with dark hair, dressed in camouflage. He had body armor and a rifle.

"I heard about 20 shots and everyone hit the ground," Moore said. "That's when we all just ran."

Shaun Wik, 20, from Fairview, said he was Christmas shopping with his girlfriend and opened a fortune cookie at the food court. Inside was written "live for today, remember yesterday, think of tomorrow."

As he read it, he heard three shots. He heard a man he believes was the gunman shout, "Get down!" but Wik and his girlfriend ran. He heard seven or eight more shots. He didn't turn around.

"If I had looked back, I might not be standing here," Wik said. "I might have been one of the ones who got hit."

Kira Rowland told KGW-TV that she was shopping at Macy's with her infant son when the shots started.

"All of a sudden you hear two shots, which sounded like balloons popping," Rowland told the station. "Everybody got on the ground. I grabbed the baby from the stroller and got on the ground."

Rowland said she heard people screaming and crying.

"I put the baby back in the stroller and ran like hell," Rowland said. "It was awful. It was shots after shots after shots like a massacre.

"It was just awful."

Holli Bautista, 28, said she was shopping in the Macy's for a Christmas dress for her daughter when she heard a two or three pops that sounded like firecrackers.

"I heard people running and screaming and saying 'Get out, there's somebody shooting,'" she told the AP. "It was a scene of chaos."

She said hundreds of shoppers and mall employees started running, and she and dozens of other people were trying to escape through an exit in the department store.

Bautista said the Macy's opens into the food court area, where it was reported the shootings took place. Bautista said it sounded like the shots were coming from that direction.

Tiffany Turgetto and her husband of Gladstone had exited Macy's through the first floor when they heard the gunshots coming from the second floor of the mall.

"People in front of us people were dropping, finding covering," she told the AP. "People were yelling screaming and gasping, yelling to get out. The lady next to us, she threw a chair and started running. We couldn't run because the chair was there."

Turgetto and her husband and other people were able to quickly leave through a Barnes & Noble bookstore before the police arrived and locked down the mall.

"I had left my phone at home. I was telling people to call 911. Surprisingly, people are around me, no one was calling 911. I think people were in shock."

Edisi Gaya Mengandung: Kate Middleton

Source MLP News

Menjadi seorang ibu semestinya pengalaman paling mulia dan bahagia yang boleh dihadapi seorang wanita. Saya tidak menyatakan sebegitu semata-mata kerana seri wajah yang diperoleh semasa mengandung, namun hakikatnya untuk mengandung anak sendiri sangat istimewa. Seorang wanita seolah melengkapkan proses matang apabila miliki anak sendiri.

Malah apabila melihat bakal ibu, kita pun turut merasa gembira. Mungkin itu sebab mengapa seluruh dunia turut kongsi kegembiraan apabila diumumkan puteri rakyat, Kate Middleton, bakal memperolehi cahaya mata.

Memang seronok menunggu kelahiran cahaya mata, namun ia bukanlah semudah yang kita lihat, tambahan lagi seperti Kate, yang sentiasa menjadi perhatian awam. Loya tekak dan perut yang kian membesar bukanlah sesuatu yang seseorang akan nikmati. Tetapi satu yang kita boleh bantu Kate: tip bergaya semasa mengandung.

www.mylaunchpad.com.my