A parent-teacher meeting in session. Parent-teacher association committees need guidance on how to motivate parents to be more involved.

I REFER to your report on parent-teacher relationships (”Parents now a problem, interested or unconcerned” — NST, Oct 6).

Although we have parent-teacher associations in all schools, few parents bother to attend the annual general meetings. There are various reasons for this.

First, most of the time, parents are indifferent to what is happening with their children in school.

Second, they think that PTAs are a waste of time and try to avoid being dragged into PTA committees.

Third, many parents do not speak or understand Bahasa Malaysia and most schools insist on using only Bahasa Malaysia at PTA meetings. Fourth, notices of PTA meetings are sent via pupils who most of the time do not pass them to their parents. Fifth, some schools are insensitive to parents’ problems when it comes to the scheduling of meetings.
There are ways to handle these problems. Indifference on the part of parents can be overcome if schools try harder to involve parents. Some schools contact parents only for negative reasons concerning their child or children. Schools should contact parents for positive reasons, too.

A simple newsletter published once a term can keep parents informed on what the school is doing and what activities are lined up.

Malaysia being multiracial, I see nothing wrong if a school could send parents who are not familiar with Bahasa Malaysia a newsletter in their vernacular language. Teachers should make it a point to visit students’ homes for positive and negative reasons.

As for the fear of being co-opted into PTA committees, schools could first identify parents interested in being committee members and present a list of names in the AGM notice so that parents know that the school has a line-up. In this way, parents afraid of being co-opted into committees will not fear attending such meetings.

Although Bahasa Malaysia is the official language of secondary schools and vernacular languages that of vernacular primary schools, there is nothing wrong in providing simple and short translations into other languages during a meeting.

A time-saving method is to have LCD projectors presenting the gist of speeches and announcements in other languages while the official language is used.

A posted notice of AGM is the best way to inform parents, although it may cost the PTA some money. If PTAs are lacking in funds, I am sure parents do not mind contributing a 30 sen stamp once a year to make this possible. However, in this age of information technology, many parents have email addresses and mobile phones, and emails and SMSes could be sent as an alternative.

Finally, the time and day an AGM is held is important. Sunday is the one day that most parents are free. Though it is not a school day, it would not be asking too much if teachers and school workers come back once a year for the AGM.

Maybe some of us with the right experience should write a handbook for PTA committee members on how to motivate parents, their main roles and events to conduct and guidelines on what to do in problem-solving between parents and schools.

The Education Ministry should appoint a special committee to study the role of PTAs and come up with such a guide book.

New Straits Times

NEW DELHI: The burgeoning middle class in India is feeling the heat of the global financial turmoil. Already battered by rising inflation, many find themselves facing a personal debt crisis.

Aftershocks of the US financial crisis are being felt a long way from Wall Street.

While the Chawlas living in New Delhi have not suffered any losses in the market crash, they do worry about their income.

Like any upper middle class family in India, they dine out in fancy restaurants at least once a week and watch their favourite shows on an LCD TV.

But with inflation running high, saving money is their top agenda, especially during Diwali.

Festive season is on in India. This is a time of celebrations when people usually buy jewellery and exchange gifts. But the global financial crisis has certainly put a damper on the festive spirit.

The festive season is considered an auspicious time to buy gold.

Insurance agent Preeti Chawla was planning to buy a necklace, but has since changed her mind.

She said: “The festival time is coming and there are lots of things to buy. Personally in my case, I had planned to spend on gold. In the last few days, one has been seeing the prices of gold on a daily basis - they have been fluctuating a lot.

“They have moved to Rs14,000 ($288) which is a lot. So definitely, I am thinking of postponing my expenditure on gold,” she said.

Thousands of Indians like the Chawlas have similar doubts. As people in India do not trade much in the stock market, their main investments are assets such as car, house and jewellery.

But with interest rates on housing loans soaring, they have postponed their plans to buy property. Adjustable-rate home loan in India has jumped from 9 percent to 12 percent in a month.

Ms Indra Chawla, a housewife, said: “We were planning for our future, to buy a bigger house and expand our property. Right now, we can’t even think about that.

“The property rates are running very high and we definitely cannot keep up with our savings. We invest mainly in household expenditure, education of children and even transportation. How can we manage to save more money?”

India’s inflation rate is running close to 11 percent.

A typical middle class family like the Chawlas now spends much of its household income on paying off car loans and house rent.

They are being targeted by credit card companies to take up loans and instalment plans to buy automobiles, washing machines and even vacations.

But with soaring living costs, they are now squeezing budgets to pay for all these luxuries. - CNA/de

Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE : The Tokyo rush hour is notorious for its human sardine cans, where commuters are packed neck to neck and shoulder to shoulder by train staff wearing white gloves. The sheer force of the mass of bodies being shoved into the train carriages is enough to crack a laptop screen.

Except, maybe, for Panasonic’s line of physically-resilient ToughBook laptops.

In Japan, the ToughBook has had the lion’s share of the business market for the past three years. No surprises there.

These hardy notebooks go through a rigorous test of high-pressure water sprays, drop tests and endurance tests of rapid temperature changes. The ToughBook series has also been ruggedised further specially for the United States Army to ensure stable performance under extreme weather conditions.

On YouTube, you can even catch a clip of a ruggedised ToughBook being driven over by a car and coming out unscathed.

Last week, Panasonic held the global launch of its latest ToughBook laptops in Tokyo. Aimed at frequent flyers and business folks, the laptops can withstand a 76cm drop from 26 different angles. Its keyboards are spill-resistant and the chassis can withstand a force of 100kg.

There are five laptops in the latest line-up, but our shores will only see three of these. One of them, the 14.1-inch CF-F8 (S$3,899) is making its debut as the first ToughBook to come with a widescreen LCD screen and an integrated handle. The hardy briefcase-like laptop weighs only 1.66kg.

Next are updates to the 12.1-inch CF-T8 and CF-W8 (S$3,299), which see them being fitted with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Both sport the energy-efficient Intel SU9300 ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor that provides ample horsepower. The T8 is a tablet PC aimed at industries such as healthcare and service and is only available here for corporate orders. The CF-F8 and CF-T8 will ship in December, but you can start pre-ordering yours from next month.

The CF-Y8 and CF-R8 will be for Japan only. While the CF-Y8 is a capable 14.1-inch ToughBook that boasts up to eight hours of battery life, it’s the CF-R8 that’s got our attention. The 10.4-inch Toughbook has the makings of a netbook with its small form factor, but it shares the same tough features of its bigger cousins and comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor running at 1.2GHz.

Panasonic has no plans to make itcommercially available here, but let’s hope there’s enough demand for the company to change its mind.

All the ToughBooks are equipped with magnesium-alloy cases and are capable of hooking up to networks that use the latest Draft-N standard. The F8, Y8 and W8 models also come with top-loading DVD writers.

After building up the reputation and quality of its products on home turf, Panasonic is making an effort to reach into foreign markets. At the launch, the company announced it will make the ToughBook available to more countries in the region, as well as in the emerging economies of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Panasonic plans to ship 1.3 million laptops worldwide by 2012, up from the 660,000 it shipped last year. -

Channel News Asia