Page 84 - YBAM 50th Anniversary Souvenir Magazine

from specific people who have a deep many years of experience in auditing
understanding of Buddhism and strong
writing skills, and collecting articles by
holding textbook writing camps.
At that time, the then YBAM President Goh
Tay Hock also joined the writing team. For
standard five and six textbooks, he was
the sole writer. In 2011, a full set of six-
year textbooks and teacher’s guidebook
were published.
All writers composed the textbook in
accordance with the curriculum and its
syllabus, submitted the paper on time. It
was reviewed, amended, or modified by
the editors or returned to the writer for
rewriting, which would be reviewed again
at the next meeting for perfection. The
review process was often time consuming
and labour intensive which was the main
reason for the late publication time. The
lineup of writers was quite large and
those closely involved were Venerable
Chi Chern, Goh Tay Hock, Lee Li Chong,
Neoh Wee Keon, Lim Ai Li, Kiu Yee Ni,
Yeow Feng Wei and etc.
The three editors who reviewed the
textbook were also accomplished and
experienced,
Keoh Lean Cheaw - Veteran in the teaching
profession, senior Dharma speaker,
Editor-in-Chief of Buddhist Digest, Editor
of Yu Hu Buddhist Children’s Publication,
Founder and Director of Pu Ai Community
Center Penang.
Chong Beng Hooi - Senior Lecturer of
Trainee Teachers College, President of
082 Central Kedah Buddhist Association, with
She toured all over the country to explain Cheok Yun Chai, treasurer Ong Kah
textbooks of the Ministry of Education. the textbooks and conduct activities. Seong and the former secretaries (Seo
Leng Leng, Ng Phaik Hoon, Chang Mei
Khor Ewe Pin - Founder and President As for the illustrations, the standard one Ying, Tan She Teng) had fully cooperated
of Odonata Publishing, popular writer, to standard three were taken care by Loh to make sure the work was well organised.
contributor to Chinese textbooks for Kim Meng, standard four to standard six With an excellent administrative team,
secondary school in the Ministry of were in charged by Ray Hoo and Louis the lengthy process of compiling books
Education. Ng, and some of them were Lew Yin Yee’s progressed rather smoothly.
work. As the team has insisted that the
They were involved in reviewing each principal pictures must be created using After compiling the textbook for each
and every aspect of the textbooks from watercolors instead of computer painting, grade, the complete sample was passed
standard one to six, and they met up the editorial board almost failed to identify to Venerable Chi Chern and Venerable
once a month or once in two months. a qualified artist at that time, who was both Khai Sear for the last round of review
Occasionally, Khor Ewe Pin also arranged skillful and able to conform to Buddhist before sending it to print.
his staff from the Odonata Publishing to style, especially the illustration of the Lord
assist in taking meeting minutes, and Buddha and his disciples. It’s not easy to COMPILING BUDDHIST CURRICULUM,
he has helped to publish the full set find the right people. TEXTBOOKS, AND TEACHER’S
of textbooks and teacher’s guidebooks GUIDEBOOK FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
from standard one to standard six at a As for the songs in the activity suggestions,
special price. Such generosity is worth the main composers were Teoh Wei Kien, After the compilation of teaching materials
remembering! Upon finishing the primary Chow Kam Leong, Lee Hann Chong and for primary school Buddhist study, the
school textbooks, Keoh Lean Cheaw and etc., while the production of CDs was editorial board began to plan and compile
Chong Beng Hooi accepted the offer to mainly taken care of by Seng Tak Pin and secondary school Buddhist textbooks from
stay on as editors of secondary school Lee Ying Chien. 2011 onwards. The same process applied
textbooks. to set up the editorial board, compiling the
We were very fortunate that in the process curriculum, and then recruiting the writers
The process of writing ‘Teacher’s of compilation, the Vice Chairperson to write for textbooks accordingly.
Guidebook for Primary Buddhist
Textbooks’ was equally complicated
and lengthy. Fortunately, Liew Pee Lian,
who was the chairperson of the Education
Committee at the time, led the team to
complete the work with her rich experience
and professional knowledge as a lecturer
at the Trainee Teachers College. The
team that compiled the guidebook was
large, therefore their names cannot be
mentioned here one by one.
The section of ‘activity suggestions’ from
standard one to six within textbooks were
completed independently by Lew Yin Yee. 083
50 YEARS OF DHARMA PRO PA GATION CO NTINUING THE MIS SION IN THE 5G ER A