Sri KDU Secondary

Having been given the tour of the primary school earlier in the day, the secondary school was equally impressive with the facilities even going up a notch. There were classess with full drum kits; enough for twenty children and amazing library and computer facilities, drama studios, swimming pool and sports pitches and language labs.

Whilst we tour the school, the children are on their lunch break and are aking part in a number of activties; tab le tennis, badminton etc. We are told there is also a talent corner where they can take to the stage.
The school is offering the International Baccalaureate for the first time this year, and there is a separate department and resource centre for these students. The staff are enthusiastic about the facilties they are showing us and there is so much that we feel as if we are only scratching the surface as the polished corridors stretch out in front of us.
The fees at Sri KDU are 15,000RM which is about £3000 per year. Whilst this is could be considered reasonable in comparison to private schools at home, in comparision to other costs in Malaysia it is extremely expensive (more than the average yearly wage) plus many families have 3 or 4 children here, as Malaysian families tend to be larger than back in the UK.
The majority of children here are Chinese Malaysians and speak English at home, therefore their English is excellent and they are very keen to talk to us.
We have the opportunity to view a number of lessons; Maths, Chemistry, Mandarin and English. the maths lesson that I saw was along similar lines to what you would expect our year 9 children to be doing. There was a mental starter of sorts and then an activity that the children were working on i pairs. The interactive whitboarad was used to support the learning at several points during the lesson. Perhaps in British schools, the children may have been taking more of an active role in the lesson, but there were some opportunities for children to share their thinking with one another.
Following the tour, there was a forum for staff and students which was held for us where we got to speak to staff and pupils. For me, this was possibly the most productive part of the day as we got an opportunity to talk in small groups and really explore some isues. The pupils were very impressive in terms of their knowledge of educational issues and in their mastery of English and there was no shortage of conversation.