It was 2015. I was exhausted.
Groggy from a 20-minute nap in my car under the scorching sun, I could only think of grabbing a Red Bull to tide me through the afternoon. I walked into a local Speedmart in a Klang suburb, grabbed a can of Red Bull and went to the counter to pay.
The cashier, a young woman, couldn’t have been older than 18. I handed her RM10 for my RM4.60 drink.
“So sorry, the register is spoiled,” she said to me as she fumbled around the drawer to look for a calculator.
After what seemed like ages, she slapped it down on the table.
She punched in some numbers, then let out a “tsk” as she made a mistake. She punched it in again, another “Tsk”. Finally, she correctly punched in 10 – 4.60 = 5.40.
She gave me my change, and I went into the secondary school next door. I was running a math pilot programme at this school, where 86% of students were failing math.
My heart sank as I realised that the young cashier could have been from this school, and it’s possible that the trajectory of her entire life could have been determined by how the school struggled to teach their students math.
The Bigger Picture
Malaysia’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores indicate the extent to which students are struggling. This problem is in every developing country in Southeast Asia.
I theorise that there is a deep correlation between our school’s educational outcomes and a country’s economic performance, like the gravitational pull of our planet and our moon; their fates are intertwined.
How can we escape this cycle?
Tupai’s theory of change revolves around the need to focus on two essential actions from the start:
1) Freeing up teachers’ time
Why this is important: When teachers handle 200 students or more at a time across multiple classes, it’s already impossible for them to have any spare time. Add that to the challenge of high failure rates, and it’s unrealistic for them to give undivided attention to every student.
This lack of time becomes a major barrier for teachers. It prevents them from reflecting on their practice and developing the professional growth needed to become the kind of educators who can instil confidence and competence in their students.
This is where AI and the newly available tools can save teachers precious time. Soon, teachers may not need to mark student papers, or spend time creating meeting minutes, or use precious time to generate randomised test paper problems. Soon, teachers will have the teaching assistants they have been asking for, allowing them to spend more time helping the most needy students.
2) Giving students the personal attention they deserve
Why this is important: When students struggle with math, they need more than just practice. They need someone to guide them, break things down, and help them when they’re stuck.
But there aren’t enough teachers to go around, and teachers don’t have enough time to help every student. Therefore, many students turn to tuition, but affordable tuition options also often mean large class sizes, where students still do not receive the one-on-one help they need.
Hiring more teachers for our public schools seems like the obvious solution, but in reality, it’s not scalable.
One additional teacher in all 10,000 Malaysian public schools would cost nearly RM1 billion per year. Even so, it’s still not enough to hire one additional teacher for each school. This is a multi-billion-ringgit problem that developing nations simply cannot afford.
But, with the advent of technology, it is now possible to free up teachers’ time and provide students with individualised support at a significantly lower cost.
If the young cashier were born today, would her fate have been different? Maybe this young cashier wouldn’t be stuck fumbling for change in a mini-mart. Instead, she might be solving bigger, more meaningful problems.
