1. Non-conducive population of students
Various institutions have many intakes a year and I know of one college that takes up to 6 intakes a year. What's more "remarkable" is the amount of students per intake is simply abundant. Some institutions takes in as many as 500 students per intake.
How would the authority of the institution expect to create a conducive learning environment for the students? These students would be divided into probably 4-5 groups of approximately 100-150 students per group for practical classes. With just 1 lecturer per group, how would they expect the students to be able to see what the lecturer is teaching?
For example when a lecturer teaches spinal mobilisation, that would require students to get very close to the lecturer and observe the demonstration. But with the great amount of students, how would the student to even have a chance to see where the hands are palpating on the back?
2. Lack of equipments
Many of these institutions have such inadequate equipments. Can you imagine I have heard that many have not even seen a peak flow meter! They even wondered how a spirometer looks like.
Students had to pay huge amounts to finish their diploma or degree in some institutions, ranging between RM45k to RM80k for a 3-year diploma course. Imagine getting RM60k per students, with 3000 students per year. The institution gets a total of RM1800000000 (that's RM1.8 BILLION!) yet they can't even purchase enough peak flow meters for the students? I seriously wonder what they do with the money.
Some students have never even heard of the isokinetic machine. Personally, having studied in a particular university, with only 34 students in my batch and divided into 2 groups of 17 students, we got to practise with spirometers, peak flow meters, isokinetic machine and many other equipments that are necessary for a holistic and complete assessment and treatment.
3. Places for clinical placements
In my 4 years of doing my degree, we're very lucky that the students of my university have always been placed in local government hospitals. Students of other institutions, due to their huge numbers are always placed in homes like mentally handicapped homes or old folks homes. It would be a great exposure with placement in homes however how would they be able to learn if there are no physiotherapists at the homes to guide them? How would they know they are doing things wrongly if there are no physiotherapists to correct them?
Also, these students wouldn't have enough exposure to cardiorespiratory (CR) patients as majority of CR patients can only be found in hospitals. How would they be able to assess and treat CR patients upon fully graduated if they have handled none? Many have NEVER EVEN STEPPED INTO THE ICU.
I'm sure the Malaysian Physiotherapist Association (MPA) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) as well as the Ministry of Higher Education are making efforts to overcome these problems. We hope and pray to see the outcomes of their effort ASAP.
We can't have many more students being CHEATED!
I agree :D
ReplyDeleteThanx Zaid
ReplyDeleteu met a lots of them from private college is it?y u seems so familiar with their system?haha...anyway, i agree with wat u said. I think u really shud send tis as email to our Big Boss.hahaha
ReplyDeletehey2..nadia tichan stalking ur blog again hehe~ ice massage coz ice burn very funny~
ReplyDeleteRM1.8 BILLION...half for Mentor & another half for TV1...some for their lecturers who own master.
ReplyDeleteyeah i'm working with people from private college graduates and they told me all this problems.
ReplyDeletei'm not here to condemn the graduates of private colleges in school of physiotherapy but im here with the hope that i can voice out their predicaments
agree...very2 agree..quality,not quantity...
ReplyDeletethanx anamuslim!
ReplyDeleteaggred
ReplyDeletei was called to comment about this entry. hanif, i know what u have stated are from your observation and your own judgement. its good having hear your opinion about this but there are things which you talked about are not what you think they are. for example, i agree, that totally true the private college are taking 6 batches of students in a year, that's a big number compare to the local uni. i don't want to touch about that. maybe they have their own quota and their own reasons by doing that. some more they are PRIVATE colleges, it is "bapak dia punye" college. they can do whatever they want as long as they got the green light to do it by the ministry. it's their business to sell and to advertise the course. but to the hell with that, i don't give a damn about that. For me, everyone should hv the chance for education right? People who entered the private colleges doesn't mean that they are below par with the requirement or something like that. There were some cases, they've got flying colors in SPM or diploma or whatever, but they just dint hv the chance to pursue study in the courses that they like. These might be because the government had enough quota for JPA or for some non-malay, they dint hv the previllage to get the scholarship. As for me, I am a MALAY, but still I dont get the chance to have it. Who to blame for this? So, one of the solutions to pursue our dream is to enter the private institution. all i want is to learn and to have a diploma/degree and being able to practise it later. And the most important is to achieve our ambition, our dream. and one thing for sure, either private college or local uni, they do this to educate the students, for the students to be graduated in physiotherapy. our main intention is all the same hanif. To be a good physiotherapist. Tell me who wants to be bad? No one hanif. We do that coz we want to help people. To educate people. To share knowledge. To learn from others and be better than yesterday. I don't quite like it when u always like to compare the private students with the local students. What so big deal about that hanif? D u hv problem with that? Talking bout private and local uni, I think its all the same with the universities in overseas. Let say in US or UK, they are just like private uni as well. As long as u've got the money and meets the requirement, u can enter in which ever uni u want, say it manchester uni? melbourne uni? They are just the same. But our perception towards the overseas uni is higher, so we think that that they are all good. It cant be denied that they are good in everything but, because we think so negative bout uni in malaysia be it local or private, then we kinda bias on that. Why dont we give it a chance and try to improve our uni and think of the ways in handling this matter.
ReplyDeleteRESPECT,RESPECT and RESPECT. That's all hanif. All human are equal. Do not underestimate them. If they make mistakes, and u think u are right, please, its your pleasure to correct them. They will learn from mistakes, again and again. No one is perfect. And if u are wrong, and u kena tegur, accept it with open heart and dont take it to hard. And yes, hanif there are some students in private college are bad, but not all of them. Some are indeed good. same goes to the local uni...some are good and some are bad. Right? U cannot judge from what college they have entered. Its rather individual achievements. And for the lack of equipments and facilities, I dont think so. Like kak Lynn said, maybe ur lucky to have entered uitm when they were surrounded by complete equipments and machines. Like our batch, we didn't have the chance to do the EMG test like what u did with your batch and the batch after. We din't have the chance to do the phytas activities every year, we even din't have our own MPG dinner for our batch. So, its all about chances. But that do not blocked us from just to keep quite and pretend that we dint learn anything. To go back when we were in clinicals, When the physiotherapist asked about EMG and how is it look like, at first, we said we dont know. And he/she will ask us to go back and read. The next day, he/she will show us. And we discuss.... And we learned it... That's how the learning process goes. If u cant find it in lecture/class. U can learn it from somewhere else. Bukan nya keluar grad, terus kita tahu semua. I don't think so. Its all about our own initiative and will power to learn by ourselves. And from there, these things will determine us whether we can be good physiotherapist or not. But from my experience, I kinda have the overall picture of how local uni life and private uni life are..coz i've been there, in both instituitions.
ReplyDeleteBoth have pro's and cons. But let me just keep to myself bout that. Dont want to argue bout that. But for general picture, local uni, they hv good facilities, good lecturers, good environment, all are good..but this is what I think...the students are in comfort zone and they just cant see what happen to “the real” world out there. U get what I mean? Tak nak cakap byk2. But they are good, its just that sometimes, they have to open up their eyes and go mix around with others. And in private uni, the facilities are ok ok, the environments are not so condusive, but one thing bout them, the students mix a lot, more competitive, think out of the box, and I think my perspective are getting wider and I get to see the world from different angle. Get what I mean? I tak tahu in other courses, but in my course, the lecturers are good. Most of them are professors from the local uni previously. Most of my lecturers were from uitm as well. And they are great. And so, there are no issue bout the syllabus or content of the studies bcoz they are all the same. Might be a bit different here and there, but the basic is just the same. And this depend on the student pulak to absorb it and apply it correctly. Again, its all back to that individual. And in my course, I found out that the facilities are ok. We hv complete wet lab, dry lab, digital lab, physio lab, anatomy suite with 11/12 cadavers and human models. We are divided into 6-8 ppl/group and we hv the chances to use that facilities after the classes to practice on our own. Well, for me I think that's more than good. There's one or two machines that are not available yet, but i'm sure I can learn it later when i'm in clinical years. Yes, I agree with you that the private or local universites have to upgrade their facilities to the international standards. Not that we demand it to be done right now, but hope they are aware with it and try to fix it for the sake of better studying and teaching environment to produce excellent physiotherapists. So, hanif please think first before you start to write. We are malaysians. We still have budi bicara and sopan santun. Its good to have discussions like this, but hope that you can express it in a better way in the future. I wish you all the best in your career and your future undertakings. Keep up the good work in bringing up the physiotherapy to the best level.
ReplyDeleteFateen: please read what I wrote properly. I never underestimate nor disrespect the students. I stood up for the students as I pity them and the private college students I trained plauded my effort. They themselves said they couldnt voice their problems to the authority, and as a concern physiotherapist, I taught i would HELP THEM by voicing out their probs.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why are u defending MAHSA when you are suppose to be in a third year but they downgraded u into second year? u were suppose to be doing ur clinicals overseas but they cheated u by saying u will be doing it locally? Do you think they treated u fairly by doing that? and what have u done to get ur fair share after these CHEATINGS towards u? U paid half a million for medic and they could cheat u like this, yet u still support them?.
I pretended to be an SPM leaver and went to these colleges education expo and they gave me all the sweet talk in the world. Equipments are adequate, only 2 students per physio lecturer, small groups of learning, thats what they said but we know the reality is different.
So dearest fateen, please re-read my writings, I never have negative vibes on the students but ony towards the authorities. Also, I never specify any college there, private or public, therefore these suggestions of mine apply to all public and private colleges.