SMK Penang Free Laksana Pelan Pembelajaran Baru

Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Penang Free (Penang Free School), Pulau Pinang akan melaksanakan pelan pembelajaran baru bagi mengekalkan kecemerlangan akademik dan kokurikulum pelajar.

Image via WikipediaMenerusi pelan itu, semua pelajar Tingkatan Satu akan diajar sebahagian sukatan mata pelajaran tingkatan dua, manakala pelajar Tingkatan Dua pula mempelajari sukatan pelajaran tingkatan tiga.

Pengetuanya, Ramli Din, berkata pelan berkenaan bertujuan mendedahkan pelajar kepada sebahagian subjek tahun berikutnya.

Katanya, pendekatan itu mampu membantu pelajar bersedia lebih awal sebelum menduduki peperiksaan Penilaian Menengah Rendah dan Sijil pelajaran Malaysia.

"Pada peringkat itu pelajar memerlukan banyak masa untuk mengulangkaji dan memberi tumpuan kepada peperiksaan.

"Menerusi pelan ini pelajar yang berada di tingkatan tiga, hanya perlu menghabiskan baki 60 peratus sukatan pelajaran.

“Pelajar Tingkatan Empat pula mempelajari kira-kira 20 peratus sukatan pelajaran tingkatan lima,” katanya.

Penang Free School yang diasaskan Reverend Robert Sparke Hutchings pada 1816 adalah sekolah Inggeris pertama ditubuhkan di Malaysia.

Pada Mac 2007, sekolah itu mendapat pengiktirafan Kementerian Pelajaran apabila dipilih sebagai sekolah kluster.

Ramli yakin pelajar tidak akan menghadapi masalah untuk mempelajari subjek tambahan kerana mereka adalah sebahagian pelajar cemerlang yang memasuki sekolah berkenaan.

Ramli yang menjalankan tugas sejak 2006 berkata, semua guru sekolah itu juga terbabit dalam usaha meningkatkan kecemerlangan akademik dan kokurikulum sekolah berkenaan.

"Saya harap prestasi akademik pelajar akan meningkat walaupun tidak mencapai 100 peratus cemerlang," katanya.

Bagi melahirkan pemimpin berwibawa pada masa depan, Ramli berkata, beliau mewajibkan semua pelajar mengambil bahasa antarabangsa seperti Sepanyol, Perancis dan Arab, selain Tamil, Mandarin serta bahasa Inggeris.

"Saya berharap pelajar mempunyai keyakinan tinggi apabila ke luar negara, sama ada untuk menyambung pelajaran atau berkerja," katanya.

Ketika ini sekolah itu sedang menyiapkan Taman Ilmu sebagai tempat rehat dan mengulangkaji pelajaran.

Antara kemudahan disediakan ialah tempat duduk berbumbung dan pentas untuk persembahan orkestra atau pancaragam.

Penang Free School kini mempunyai 1,354 pelajar termasuk kelas khas untuk pelajar yang aktif dalam kegiatan sukan.

Sistem pembelajaran kelas berkenaan dirancang khas bagi memberi tumpuan kepada pelajar yang kerap meninggalkan bilik darjah kerana menyertai kejohanan sukan.

Teen Smokers: I picked up smoking at boarding school

They had a reason for being unhappy. They were tricked by their mother who brought them to the Tanglin Quit-Smoking clinic.

Mum, Mariam Samad, took medical leave to bring her sons to the clinic. She was desperate.

She was at her wits end trying to get her sons, Amirul, 16 and Amir, 14 to quit smoking, a habit they had developed three years ago.

She tried nagging, scolding and giving them health scares. Nothing worked.
The mother moved them out of their boarding school after she learnt that they had picked up the habit there.

"They stank of cigarette smoke when they returned home for holidays."

The 42-year-old woman transfered her sons to a day school, hoping she and her husband could pay more attention to their sons' activities.

But that too was in vain. The boys were still at it.

Running out of options and hearing about the clinic, Mariam, brought her sons there last month.

"I am just so afraid they will soon start taking drugs," said Mariam, adding that Amir needed to stop smoking immediately as he was asthmatic.

She had tried talking to them but without much success.

"You know teenagers. It is very hard to talk to them," she said.

Before hearing about the Quit-Smoking clinic, Mariam tried to buy nicotine replacement drugs but found them to be expensive at RM150 for a three-week supply.

At the counselling session, the brothers were told that the cigarette is like a devil, which destroys the body and mind.

Amirul felt motivated to quit especially after reading the pledge to quit smoking for good. He could see the light at the end of the tunnel. "I am going to try to quit because I want to be healthy," said Amirul after the session.

He said he did not like to see his lips turning black. He also had a girlfriend to think about.

Amirul, in recalling his smoking activities said he would smoke when he went out to town with his boarding school friends.

"I began to smoke because I was bored. School was not a challenge to me," he said.

Now he said he would make an effort to quit smoking by not thinking about smoking.

Instead he would concentrate on his new hobby -- dancing.

Over the past six months, Amirul joined his friends in taking part in the shuffle dance.

He felt sorry that his younger brother had also picked up the habit but said he did not teach him.

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Teen Smokers: Help to kick the habit

By RINA DE SILVA

SET up in 2004, The Tanglin community polyclinic is the Health Ministry's best performing Quit-Smoking clinic in the country.

More than 500 people have visited the clinic since 2005. The success rate at the clinic has been rising steadily. It was 24.2 per cent in 2005, 35.8 per cent in 2006 and 51.2 per cent last year.

The health ministry said the average quit rate nationwide was between 10 and 15 per cent.

This year, 68 smokers seeking help, visited the twice-weekly clinic and over 30 per cent of the visitors are teenagers. Last year, the number of teenage visitors was less than one per cent.

The clinic's counsellor and staff nurse Swinder Jit, recently added an extra weekday to accommodate the increasing number of teenage visitors.

Swinder does the counselling herself, using her no-nonsense approach.

"How can you smoke when you are having asthma?," she asked a 14-year-old rather firmly but with a concerned tone in front of the teenager's mother.

"Look, your lips are turning black," she tells another teenager with a worried look.

She also listened in disbelief when smokers tell her they resumed smoking because the medication had run out.

"I always warn them not to expect me to believe this lame excuse," she said.

In their first session, smokers are made to take a pledge before Swinder and a witness that they will stop smoking from the day they registered at the clinic.

The smokers then come for follow-up visits to reinforce their efforts to quit smoking for good.

The session begins with the teenage smokers being told to empty their pockets.

If they hesitate, the 53-year-old Swinder gives them an understanding look and assures them.

"We don't judge you by how many cigarettes you smoke. Remember honesty is the best policy," she said.

She then confiscated the items and probed their smoking habits and their reasons for wanting to quit.

Then the experienced nurse lectured on why smoking was bad by drawing the smokers' attention to a graphic skeleton with severe body damage.

"Smoking affects your whole body. The cigarette contains 4,500 chemicals that can damage your body," she said, adding that the chemicals included rat poison, moth ball and ammonia.

The teenagers expressed their surprise when they heard this.

"Ah? rat poison too?," they asked.

She assured them that once they stop smoking they could heal their bodies quickly.

After the alarming lecture, she gave tips on how they could break the habit.

"Don't hang out with people who smoke. Mix with non-smokers. Go to the swimming pool and the education park," she said.

She said the trick to stop smoking was to stop thinking about smoking.

"Divert your thoughts to studies, your future, movies, games and dating," she said.

"When your friend offers you a cigarette, say 'tak nak' (no thanks)."

When the urge came, wait for three minutes, she advised.

"The urge to smoke would usually disappear after three minutes," she added. (See sidebar for more tips)

After hearing the tips, the teenagers asked her if the water pipe Shisha was better than cigarettes.

"No, no, shisha is just as bad. You cannot replace one with another. It is also illegal for you teenagers to take shisha," she said.

After the question-and-answer session the teenagers were given a notebook to record their progress.

Swinder then gave them a pack of nicotine replacement product they can take whenever they feel the urge to smoke.

She ended the session by scheduling their next appointment and gave her final words of comfort.

"Don't worry so much. Just try your best."

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