The Government is studying whether the use of English in teaching Mathematics and Science is the best way to upgrade pupils' command of the language.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the Government would consider the people's opinion on the subject. Some, he said, had questioned whether teaching Maths and Science in English would be the best way for pupils, especially Malays, to improve their command of the language.
"We are studying if there are other ways to improve the mastery of English among Malay pupils," Najib said. “We need some empirical evidence on the matter, and we'd like to present the findings to the Prime Minister."
The research focuses on the decline in Malay pupils' command of English and whether it is a permanent phenomenon.
However, Najib dismissed speculation that the Government would revert to teaching Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia. "It's too early to decide because a policy cannot be changed hastily. Whatever decision we make will be based on a thorough study.“ Najib said the Government had several proposals to improve the command of English among pupils, but it was still too early to reveal them."
"We are studying them in-depth. We need to refine the proposals. It's too early to say what should be done."
AUTHOR'S COMMENT:
Success in anything is, but a JOURNEY. Time is the ESSENCE, if we want results. From the day the government decided to turn all school subjects to Bahasa Malaysia and reduced English to a single subject, it must have accepted the implication arising thereof. For whatever reasons why that political decision was made, the outcome and the consequences is a KNOWN FACTOR.
So, the problem of today, is the direct result of the solution of yesterday. This is Murphy's Law.
When the government decided to move Science and Maths back to English three years ago, the decision of our then beloved Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Mahathir Mohamad, he must have considered the consequences and the tribulations that was embarked upon. I believe, the decision to go back to English must have been made after careful consideration of the needs of the nation and its population at large.
In the global economy, we cannot escape the fact that English will be the medium for communication and business. The information technology world have played a large part to remove the borders of the global communication system and allows business transactions and technology transfer to be achieved in the shortest time possible.
The normal mode of communication and the normal language used within the internet spheres has been English, thus far. Research papers for industries can be downloaded from the internet which will aid those researchers and academicians, including technocrats, in the scientific and invention world.
Products and services need to get to the market fast enough before competitions set in. Business survivals depends on competitive advantage and consistent high product quality. Communications is via cyber space and time has become the essence. English thus, becomes the basic necessity and absolute necessity.
The government of Mahathir was brave enough to make this change in line with the global economic requirements. Maths and Science thus was reverted back to English for the schools.
But what will be the consequences arising thereof?
This change is radical and abrupt. Chaos and complexities will rule the coming days. But it was necessary if we are to stay current and relevant in this global economy. We had to accept the pain and the tribulations that comes along with this decision. It is going to be painful and a discomfort, but we must move forward, at all cost.
Teachers and lecturers had to be retrain and re-educated in the "New" language. But who is training the teachers? Are the teachers left to themselves to make good their own English competency, when through the last two decades, they had been educated, taught and had been applying their services all in Bahasa Malaysia?
Tho' efforts were made to provide assistance to improve teachers' English, but the system approach to ensure that teachers are competent in English was lacking. Why?
Primarily, our system is basically short-sighted and tinkering. Our culture is one that demands immediate use of products, with whatever products we had remoulded or had produced. So, we end up with half-baked English teachers.
Of course, not all of them are half-baked. There were still some teachers who were brought to the educational world via the english medium school system and some who had been educated in English universities overseas. But they are a small percentage from the total. So, the result is that, the rural schools may have been populated with local Bahasa Malaysia educated teachers.
For those students who had made efforts to learn the english language themselves, they had exceled. For many who waited for the schools to provide them with the competency, they had to be disappointed.
At the opening of Kongres Pendidikan Melayu Kedua, organising chairman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah wanted the government to discontinue the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English reports Mingguan Malaysia.
Tengku Razaleigh said using English as the medium of teaching Maths and Science has created many problems for both the teachers and students.
Ir. Ahmad Zaidee Laidin, former Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), said the policy has failed due to the implementation process that is ineffective. However, he suggested that the policy implementation of the teaching of maths and science in English can be further enhanced instead of discontinuing it all together. He said the country should not take a back-step by reverting to the old practice. "Give the teachers training if they are weak in the mastery of English; increase the (budget) allocation if allocation is an issue," he said. "But we shouldn't go back to the old ways."
So, opinions are divided. The new calls were loud from yesterdays politician. Will it affect the "new" administration? Do we revert back to the old system, or will we go forward, despite the pain? It is left to the current Prime Minister to decide.
My only advice: To achieve success, it is but a journey, a long and tiring journey. It will be painful and complex. We will not be able to see immediate results of improvement. We need to have perserverance and we must bid our time. It took us 20 years to make the students and teachers what they are today, and it isn't a fallacy to take another 20 years to put the system back where it was.
We will be able to make good the system if we have the tenacity to go on and are objective oriented.
But the only conclusion I can make is:
IF WE HAD THE PERSERVERANCE AND ARE CLEAR OF THE OBJECTIVES WE WILL MAKE IT. BUT WE WILL ONLY BE BACK TO WHERE WE WERE, FROM WHERE WE STARTED THE CHANGE 20 YEARS AGO!
Did we progress? We had to accept it.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the Government would consider the people's opinion on the subject. Some, he said, had questioned whether teaching Maths and Science in English would be the best way for pupils, especially Malays, to improve their command of the language.
"We are studying if there are other ways to improve the mastery of English among Malay pupils," Najib said. “We need some empirical evidence on the matter, and we'd like to present the findings to the Prime Minister."
The research focuses on the decline in Malay pupils' command of English and whether it is a permanent phenomenon.
However, Najib dismissed speculation that the Government would revert to teaching Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia. "It's too early to decide because a policy cannot be changed hastily. Whatever decision we make will be based on a thorough study.“ Najib said the Government had several proposals to improve the command of English among pupils, but it was still too early to reveal them."
"We are studying them in-depth. We need to refine the proposals. It's too early to say what should be done."
AUTHOR'S COMMENT:
Success in anything is, but a JOURNEY. Time is the ESSENCE, if we want results. From the day the government decided to turn all school subjects to Bahasa Malaysia and reduced English to a single subject, it must have accepted the implication arising thereof. For whatever reasons why that political decision was made, the outcome and the consequences is a KNOWN FACTOR.
So, the problem of today, is the direct result of the solution of yesterday. This is Murphy's Law.
When the government decided to move Science and Maths back to English three years ago, the decision of our then beloved Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Mahathir Mohamad, he must have considered the consequences and the tribulations that was embarked upon. I believe, the decision to go back to English must have been made after careful consideration of the needs of the nation and its population at large.
In the global economy, we cannot escape the fact that English will be the medium for communication and business. The information technology world have played a large part to remove the borders of the global communication system and allows business transactions and technology transfer to be achieved in the shortest time possible.
The normal mode of communication and the normal language used within the internet spheres has been English, thus far. Research papers for industries can be downloaded from the internet which will aid those researchers and academicians, including technocrats, in the scientific and invention world.
Products and services need to get to the market fast enough before competitions set in. Business survivals depends on competitive advantage and consistent high product quality. Communications is via cyber space and time has become the essence. English thus, becomes the basic necessity and absolute necessity.
The government of Mahathir was brave enough to make this change in line with the global economic requirements. Maths and Science thus was reverted back to English for the schools.
But what will be the consequences arising thereof?
This change is radical and abrupt. Chaos and complexities will rule the coming days. But it was necessary if we are to stay current and relevant in this global economy. We had to accept the pain and the tribulations that comes along with this decision. It is going to be painful and a discomfort, but we must move forward, at all cost.
Teachers and lecturers had to be retrain and re-educated in the "New" language. But who is training the teachers? Are the teachers left to themselves to make good their own English competency, when through the last two decades, they had been educated, taught and had been applying their services all in Bahasa Malaysia?
Tho' efforts were made to provide assistance to improve teachers' English, but the system approach to ensure that teachers are competent in English was lacking. Why?
Primarily, our system is basically short-sighted and tinkering. Our culture is one that demands immediate use of products, with whatever products we had remoulded or had produced. So, we end up with half-baked English teachers.
Of course, not all of them are half-baked. There were still some teachers who were brought to the educational world via the english medium school system and some who had been educated in English universities overseas. But they are a small percentage from the total. So, the result is that, the rural schools may have been populated with local Bahasa Malaysia educated teachers.
For those students who had made efforts to learn the english language themselves, they had exceled. For many who waited for the schools to provide them with the competency, they had to be disappointed.
At the opening of Kongres Pendidikan Melayu Kedua, organising chairman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah wanted the government to discontinue the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English reports Mingguan Malaysia.
Tengku Razaleigh said using English as the medium of teaching Maths and Science has created many problems for both the teachers and students.
Ir. Ahmad Zaidee Laidin, former Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), said the policy has failed due to the implementation process that is ineffective. However, he suggested that the policy implementation of the teaching of maths and science in English can be further enhanced instead of discontinuing it all together. He said the country should not take a back-step by reverting to the old practice. "Give the teachers training if they are weak in the mastery of English; increase the (budget) allocation if allocation is an issue," he said. "But we shouldn't go back to the old ways."
So, opinions are divided. The new calls were loud from yesterdays politician. Will it affect the "new" administration? Do we revert back to the old system, or will we go forward, despite the pain? It is left to the current Prime Minister to decide.
My only advice: To achieve success, it is but a journey, a long and tiring journey. It will be painful and complex. We will not be able to see immediate results of improvement. We need to have perserverance and we must bid our time. It took us 20 years to make the students and teachers what they are today, and it isn't a fallacy to take another 20 years to put the system back where it was.
We will be able to make good the system if we have the tenacity to go on and are objective oriented.
But the only conclusion I can make is:
IF WE HAD THE PERSERVERANCE AND ARE CLEAR OF THE OBJECTIVES WE WILL MAKE IT. BUT WE WILL ONLY BE BACK TO WHERE WE WERE, FROM WHERE WE STARTED THE CHANGE 20 YEARS AGO!
Did we progress? We had to accept it.
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