Consultant calls for referendum on PPSMI

KUALA LUMPUR: Business consultant E.S. Shankar has called on the government to conduct a nation-wide referendum to gauge the people’s reaction on the teaching of science and matemathics in English (PPSMI – Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris).

Shankar in an interview with FMT yesterday noted that the government had not released any official statistics to back their decision to reverse a policy implemented five years ago under the Dr Mahathir’s administration.

He pointed out that former Prime Minister Tun Dr.Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.co.cc in a recent poll managed to gather the feedback of over 100 000 readers, and 86 percent of them voted against the government’s proposed move to abandon the PPSMI.

Shankar was commenting to Dr Mahathir’s reiteration that the current government was making a mistake in reverting to the use of Bahasa Malaysia for teaching Science and Mathematics.

“I don’t think the government understands the importance of English as a language of knowledge when they decided to switch from English to Malay,” the former Prime Minister said.

Recently, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the government had decided to

revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national schools and Chinese and Tamil in vernacular schools from 2012.

Shankar, in supporting Dr Mahathir’s stand, said that government took their decision before the PPSMI’s implementation had a chance to run its full course. He added that the government should give at least 15 to 20 years to see the true effects of the implementation instead of the mere five years that was given.

Shankar also said that many parents are against science and mathematics being taught in Malay. Saying that the rural children will be left behind if English was used instead “is a very weak argument”, Shankar said.

“With the right teachers and methods, anyone can master a language.”

Shanakar stressed that nobody is against the Bahasa Malaysia in the school curriculum; in fact everyone agrees that it should be a compulsary subject. “However, English should be retained in certain areas to keep abreast with the rest of the world,: Shankar said.

Audit executive Serlin Lim (picture) told FMT that although she supports the teaching of science and mathematics in English, she thinks that the implementation should have been done step by step.

“Many colleges and universities are educating their students in English and it is only logical for the use and practice to be started at the lower levels. However, the educators should be well prepared to be able to teach in English,” she said.

Students who were subjected to the change to English from five years ago also agreed with.Mahathir’s views. Siyamala Kamalanathan, (picture) a student in a private collage told FMT that she and many of her friends think that it will be an advantage for students to learn those subjects in English, especially useful when they continue at the tertiary level.

“It will be easier for the students to cope in colleges especially overseas if they are trained in English,” she added.

She echoed Serlin’s view in saying that the teachers should be adequately trained first in order for the teaching of science and mathematics in English to be truely effective.

FMT
16/12/09

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