REPORTS+-+Vic+Participants

** SUMMARY  ** Reports on the trip were provided by all the schools that participated in the program. The group spent the first four days being briefed by officials of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia, the Australian High Commission in Malaysia, visiting the Institute of Teacher Education and two schools including a rural indigenous school and a Special Education School for the visually impaired. The participants of the program were made very welcome everywhere they visited. There was a great deal of interest in Victoria’s autonomous system of education. The system of education in Malaysia is centralised, however, the introduction of their High Performing Schools program is a move towards providing a more devolved system of school management. The Ministry officials expressed interest in DEECD’s assessment processes, in particular standardized testing. The MOE are currently considering abolishing their National Testing Program because of the negative impacts it has had on students’ wellbeing. The visit to the Institute of Teacher Education reinforced the interest in moving away from national testing towards a project based learning and assessment system as in the Victorian education system. Feedback from individual schools in brief follows: ** Cobden **** Technical College **** and Sekolah Menengah Teknik Alor Setar **: The definition of the term Technical differs in both countries – Malaysian technical schools have an engineering emphasis and are preparatory schools for future engineering degree students. Vocational schools are aligned to our VET programs in Victoria. Cobden sits somewhere between these two systems. Cobden and SMTAS have agreed to focus on assessment strategies, classroom management strategies and teaching materials at this stage and to communicate through wiki spaces. ** Eltham High School and Malacca High School **have agreed to collaborate on specific KLAs which include Languages, Music, ICT and Sport. Bi annual reciprocal teacher and student exchanges have been agreed and communication will be through wikispaces and skype. Limitation such as slow and unreliable internet access in Malaysia and language barriers between teachers will need to be overcome to achieve a sustainable relationship ** Maffra **** Secondary College and Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar: **There were several learnings for the representative of Maffra SC through participation in this program. Some future projects to be considered by Maffra SC included: getting students to reconnect with the community through participation in leadership programs with organisations such as the CFA, SES, Police, RAAF etc; adopt the MSAB model of appointing a number of prefects from senior levels to take on more responsibilities; and improve national pride by displaying the National Flag and playing the National Anthem and school branding. Possible future projects include: cultural activities, ICT interaction online, cross school collaborations eg with Eltham and Malacca, combined exchange programs and combined school visits to cultural exhibits in Melbourne. ** Ashwood **** College **** and SMAPK. **The relationship between these two schools does not appear to have commenced well. Ashwood is interested in working with SMAPK to develop their student leadership focus and to collaborate in drama. However, Adrick’s program during the school visit only included teaching English classes, no opportunities were made available for discussions on future collaboration. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education requests the school to produce a plan for future collaboration with Ashwood College. ** Maribyrnong **** Secondary College **** and Sekolah Skan Bukit Jalil: **The sporting facilities in this school were impressive. Rod was invited to attend the 2nd ASEAN Schools Games Opening Ceremony and related functions The importance placed on educational and sporting events in Malaysia cannot be underestimated. Both the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sport were aware of the Sister School relationship between Maribyrnong SC and Bukit Jalil. Overall this has been a very productive visit for both schools and intensive further collaboration is planned. Bukit Jalil Sports School has already hosted a staff member from Maribyrnong.who was in KL on a conference. ** Leongatha **** Secondary College ** King George the V is a select entry academic school of 1500 students, very focused on achievement, exams and entry into University. It was completely different from Leongatha Secondary College. A visit to a local secondary school which was not a cluster school revealed the same problems experienced in a Victorian Government school with mixed abilities classrooms. A proposal to link a group of 15 students from the English class with students of Leongatha Secondary College to form a book club was discussed together with several other plans to advance this sister schools relationship. The following suggestions were also made:
 * MALAYSIA **** VICTORIA SISTER SCHOOL PROGRAM PHASE 2 **
 * Communication is an issue. Email contact with the sister schools in particular seems problematic in some cases. The ICT structure is not as developed as it is in Victoria.
 * The program needs to be well supported with further exchange of teachers and students.