The just released Education Blueprint was touted to be very
comprehensive as it took into account the views and desires of
Malaysians who were given opportunities to provide input during
dialogues held in major towns across the country.
However, if the responses and loud cheers from large section of the
crowd during the dialogues are any indication of popular support and
demands by the people, then two such requests are missing in the
blueprint i.e. calls for Science and Mathematics be taught in English
and, for a non-politician Education Minister.
In my humble opinion, the blueprint ought to address the desire of
many ordinary folks who would like their children to learn Science and
Mathematics in its lingua franca i.e. English while fully supporting
maintaining MBMMBI policy for those who want it.
Interestingly, the rich who can afford to attend International
schools and those Mara sponsored students are enjoying this privilege
that is gradually being denied to those attending national schools.
It is an accepted fact that the English language proficiency among
our students and workforce is low. The government has rightly, in this
blueprint, seek to tackle this issue by improve the teaching methods,
getting better qualified teacher and allocating more teaching hours to
it.
These are good starting base to work from but let us be also frank
and accept that learning any language in isolation is tough. Learning
English will be very much easier and picked up faster when used
frequently and applied appropriately.
Realistically, studying both Science and Mathematics in English will
provide our pupil, especially from rural areas with a great platform to
do so, much like a twin turbo-charger needed to help elevate our
standard of English.
I am also of the opinion that the plan to introduce English
literature is premature and contradict the reasons why PPSMI was left
out. The authorities have constantly highlighted that some of our pupil
struggled with PPSMI and that we do not have enough capable English
teachers for PPSMI, what more English literature which is a much more
difficult subject by itself.
In fact, days before the launch, the DPM said: “We have done studies
repeatedly and we have found that there is a lack of English teachers”
and that “when students did not understand, the teachers reverted to
using Bahasa Malaysia to teach the subjects”.
Walk before attempting to run. Our immediate and urgent target is
students and a mass workforce with a higher proficiency in English, not
flooding the country with Shakespeareans!
We should only consider introducing English literature in future when
the standard of English amongst our pupil is elevated, thus reducing
any likelihood of failing, leading to abandoning yet another overly
ambitious policy.
The other loud call was for a professional and highly experienced
academician to be the Education Minister and this popular request
received among the loudest applause during those dialogues. It is
obvious that the rakyat do not want any more politicians in that post.
Many (including former DPM, Musa Hitam) are alarmed and have enough
of seeing our education standard deteriorate continuously over the years
with no end in sight, not to mention numerous “politically inclined”
policy decisions made.
The people have spoken and the message was indeed conveyed up. An
attendee of two Round Table discussions on education revealed in his
blog that “there was an almost unanimous agreement that English should
be made the medium of instruction for at least Mathematics and Science”.
How then and why were these two well-supported request left out of
the blueprint? Whoever made this decision to do so have betrayed the
people!
As parents and primary stakeholders, we demand that the final
blueprint include these two issues to truly reflect and honour the
desires of the people.
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