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Lonely?
Feeling as if you’re in need of your other half?
Education may be the answer…
… look no further.
Lancaster University is the best place to look for love in England and Wales, while the worst is West Hill in Devon, government figures suggest.
So why am I still single, then?
(Must be something to do with finding people to fill in the quota for that remaining 7%, then… )
*Corrections made: 2 (d)’s in the list. As you can see, knowing the order of the letters of the alphabet is not a pre-requisite to be doing a PhD. Thanks for pointing the error out, Sashi/
Okay.. I am closing nominations for the new name for Cakap Cakap Bola. I’m putting it up for a public vote. Yes, that includes you. I was planning to put a poll page up, but that may result in biases (i.e. me voting for mine twenty times over) and also, controlling by IP won’t work because the whole of Lancaster University is idenfitied by one IP number, so if I voted already, no one in Lancaster University can vote again.
So we’ll do it manually. Either leave your vote in the comments section, in the tagboard if you can’t comment (Khalil that means you), or email me at idlan@idlanzakaria.com. All votes will be tabulated after voting closes, and that is at 6pm GMT (UK time) Saturday 31 July, which is the equivalent of: 1am Sunday August 1 (Malaysia Time) / 7pm Saturday 31 July (Spanish Time – Anuar that means you).
You can choose up to three that you like the best, and number them 1 for your favourite, 2 for next favourite and 3 for third favourite; but you don’t have to choose three. All decisions made will be final.
The nominees are as follows, in no particular order:
a) Ball Talk
b) Gol
c) Talking Ball
d) Chit Chat Bola
e) Footie Fanatiks
f) CecakapBebola
g) Malaysian EPL Boleh Blogs
h) Borak-Borak EPL
i) Sembang Bola
j) Bicara Bola
k) Pasal Bola
l) Bola
m) Gola
n) Ball Yak / Yakking
o) BlaBola
p) Kickin’ Football
q) Kisah Bola
r) About a Ball
s) Aku Tengok Bola
t) Bola Boleh
u) BolaBlah
I know. Banyak. But I didn’t want to miss any out. And am not accepting any more nominations – comments for that entry will be closed.
Did we really need Australian researchers to tell us this?
Students in Malaysia spend an average of 3.8 hours a day in homework and this is a waste of time, according to a group of Australian principals and researchers. They say homework should be scrapped for children up to Form Three level because it robs kids of their childhood, causes arguments in families and does nothing to improve achievement.
This is the opinion of leading adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg, who is backed by the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals and Australian Council for Educational Research. The average hours of homework each day in other countries include two for Australia, Canada (2.2), Iran (four), Italy (3.6), Japan (1.7), New Zealand (two), Russia (3.1), Singapore (3.5) and the US (2.1).
This thought must have crossed the minds of researchers in education in Malaysia more than once. Are our kids spending too many hours doing homework, and going to tuition? Even parents gripe about this. And yet, I don’t recall a key Malaysian newspaper carrying results of a similar study in recent years (Please correct me if I am wrong, because I would be so much more relieved if I was!)
Which brings me to four questions:
a) Because most of our researchers, when they do their PhD, are sponsored by the government, do they not ask questions that may upset the balance of the system, of which homework is an integral part of? Because substantial findings would mean a need to rethink the education system, and may upset some people, and we don’t want to upset a Dato’, do we?
b) Are our researchers doing similar work and have found findings, but the media is generally not interested in research findings if it does not involve the sciences? Or do they not feel that Malaysian research is credible?
c) Are Malaysian researchers, and by this I mean those with a doctorate working at universities, doing any research, post-PhD? Or are we still holding the ‘bunga manggar’ even with an extra prefix in front of our names?
d) Is less homework better? Japan is lowest here (1.7 hours a day); but while their nation is indeed progressive, the state of their youth today leaves a lot to be desired for. Ash blogged about this earlier in the month, as an example.
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Other links:
Scrap Homework, say principals – Herald Sun
Addendum:
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The other side of the coin – parents still believe homework is the way to success.
Ibu mahukan kerja rumah lebih – Utusan Malaysia