School Streaming System 'Hurts' Underachievers.

I believe that Malaysians are aware that most of Malaysian public schools are practising streaming system. Streaming system is a system in which the entire school population is assigned to classes according to students' overall achievement. It means that students of the same level will be grouped together; an A student will be placed together with other A students and an F student will forever be forced to be with the other F students. Well for me, the system is a good example of the proverb, 'birds of the same feather flock together'. 

When I was a student (I was the A student), I never found the system a problem. Instead, I enjoyed it because normally I had proficient and motivated teachers teaching me various subjects. Thus, being in the top end of the streaming system is a bless.

On the other hand, recently, after having taught groups at the bottom end of the streaming system, I notice how harmful the system is to the students. Thus, it is not a surprise to have read the below news:

Streaming primary school pupils labels the for life (Benn, August 2011)
School streaming system 'hurt' less-academic students (Tapaleao, May 2008)
Streamed classes will create bitter pupils, warns Drabble (Garner, March 2006)
Streamed class 'demotivate' (BBC News, April 2002)

Whilst the issues of streaming system are put forward in a number of newspapers in developed and developing nations, many Malaysians are still not aware with the impacts of the system on the students at the bottom end of the system. Since I am blessed to have thought the wonderful students, I am able to disclose a number of effects of streaming system on the bottom end students or the underachievers. 

1. Streaming system 'hurt' underachievers learning progress as many assigned teachers struggle to simultaneously manage the class and adapt the teaching content to suit the needs of students with different disabilities and problems.

I am not a good teacher thus I find it an extreme struggle to manage the class and adapt my teaching content to suit the needs of every student. I am neither a strict nor a fierce teacher who can, by using high pitch voice, make students sit and do the tasks assigned to them properly. Instead, I handle my students with care but most of the time, I find myself exhausted. Having to deal with Dyslexia, ADHD, illiterate and hot-tempered students all at once (yes, all in a class as all of them scored poorly in their past examinations) are sometimes too much. 

Frequently, I have to be extremely careful and alert in order to make the teaching and learning process run smoothly as the students of the bottom end of the streaming system can easily get distracted and feel disturbed since too often, they are emotionally unstable. After hours of teaching them, I firmly believe that only a certain group of teachers with a certain group of characteristics can successfully teach and help the underachievers to strive better, academically (maybe those who promote military teaching style). 

2. Streaming system 'hurt' underachievers' general academic self-concept and this influences their later academic achievement.

When I first thought the bottom end of Form 4 class, we had a dialogue:

Students: Don't push yourself too hard to make us understand the lesson. We are the bottom end students. We are stupid.

Me: Who dares to say that you are stupid?

Students: Everyone.

Me: Everyone?

Students: Friends, teachers, and every one.

Me: *silence* Listen. Whatever they say, please listen to me this time, you're NOT stupid.

No one can deny the reality that often, the Malaysian society is being too judgemental towards the underachievers. The negative voices thrown to them every day and night have actually driven them to have negative general academic self-concept. Whilst studies reveal the close correlation between students' academic self-concept and academic achievement (Marsh, Byrne and Yeung, 1999), the general academic self-concept of the underachievers is at the lowest level. This should be every educator concerned.

3. Streaming system 'hurt' underachievers academic progress because they are prone to skip schools for work or to take over the father's or mother's role in the family.

Underachievers are sometimes denied their freedom to go to school or maybe they are accustomed to being denied the freedom which later lead them to be happy with not going to school. I have been teaching underachievers for months now and I discover that the number of students classed as persistence absentees is quite huge. Of 28+ students, less than 15 students show up everyday to class. The absentees are normally considered as 'lazy' students; those who refuse to wake up early in the morning to go to school, or 'naughty' students; those who play truants, yet among them are students who are denied the freedom to go to school since they have to play role as a breadwinner of their families. 

I am not being feminist but there are a lot of families with missing fathers or fathers who refuse to play their part as fathers. Hence too often, the underachievers are asked to skip schools to play roles of their fathers, be sons or daughters. This happens due to the societal belief that the underachievers would gain nothing in schools but could gain something if they are to work in restaurants, wet markets or supermarkets. I had once bumped into an underachiever, a persistence absentee, who worked very hard in a wet market to help his old mother earning some pennies for living. If I were him, I would also be in conflict whether to keep going to school; which may not bring any fortune to me as people keep calling me stupid and hopeless, or to keep skipping school to help mom to school my siblings who are academically doing better than me. 

Streaming system is a debatable issue. For those who are at the top end or at the middle of the system, the system is a bless yet for those who are at the bottom end of the system, the system is a nightmare. Being labelled as underachievers and being placed in the last class of the form are, indeed, an unbearable punishment. Although it may be difficult to answer the question of, 'should we ban streaming system in school?', one cannot deny that school streaming system does 'hurt' the underachievers.