The government is undoing its own move and wasting six years of money, time and talent by deciding to end the policy of teaching Mathematics and Science in English in both Primary and Secondary Schools effective from 2012.
Deputy Prime Minster Muhyiddin sells the government’s move by explaining that the PPSMI “did not achieve what it was supposed to achieve” and this move was for “the future of their children”.
Many argue that the government is doing this to gain the favor of the locals, so as to defend their government in the next election.
Whether the government is doing this for political reasons, I strongly feel that the government is really wasting time and talent.
Six years ago, Dr M introduced this policy to teach Science and Math in English for a greater vision that is to move towards globalization. Malay Scientists and Mathematician can also be exposed to different points of views from other people in the world and improve by learning from one another.
Like what Dr M said, “It is not trying to learn English; it’s not about trying to learn Malay. It’s simply just acknowledgement of the fact that today’s knowledge comes to us in the English language…today; the knowledge is with people who write in English. And for that reason, we want to learn English to acquire that knowledge.”
Now, after six years, the government completely erases this policy and sells their move by saying that it has not achieved its purpose of raising the people’s standard of English.
This is not only wasting time and money, but also significantly shows the government’s irresponsibility.
They are not just undoing a move that has been carried out forcefully for six years despite the difficulty of teachers teaching these subjects in English, but also limiting themselves again from being a globalized country and confining “knowledge circulation” to themselves, or rather, only people who can speak Malay.
What about those people who have already converted to speaking English for Science and Math? They have to take the time to learn the two subjects in Malay and learn the Malay term for Bunsen Burner?
This is totally ridiculous, irresponsible.
First of all, the government shouldn’t even have forced this six-year policy to start when more than 80% of teachers are incapable of using English in the classrooms. Now, the policy has already caused so much inconvenience, the government announces that their move to backtrack is a wise decision? If they want to even start this six-year policy, they should have trained the teachers, if not replaced the Science and Math teachers not fluent in English with teachers who are capable of teaching in English;.
Now all efforts and money are totally thrown down the drain, the government has nobody to blame but itself for this abject failure.
1 comment:
Hey Jonah, Thank you for this good piece of article.
It is written with relative maturity and balance ; several angles were taken to assess this policy flip - flop. The Malaysia govt's stand , Dr. M comments, the public perception etc, then your own opinions.
A country's policy direction is so paramount in determining the development of a nation,its future and the success of its people. The policymakers owe it to themselves, the people and also the country to exercise care and due dilligence when making policy decisions.
Failing which, the consequenses can be very dire, much beyond just money wasted. We are talking here the future of the young generation who will one day become the pillars of the country.
Continue to post good article. Thanks!
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