Malaysiakini（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
(1) Info sessions on language policy next week, 5 November 2011
Information sessions will be carried out in all schools nationwide starting next week to explain the policy on 'Upholding Bahasa Malaysia and Strengthening the English Language', Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong said.
This follows the first session at the ministry yesterday carried out by the Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister.
Earlier, Wee presented gold medals to 104 students who passed their International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) 2011, a world-class assessment programme by the University of New South Wales, Australia, at the National Science Centre here today.
About 49,000 students in Malaysia took the tests covering five subjects namely Computer Skills, Science, Mathematics, English and Writing, with 112 gold medals won by 104 Malaysian students.
Wee said the ministry was preparing a circular on the policy which would be distributed to the state education departments and district education offices and later to be channelled to the ground.
Wee also reminded school principals and teachers to read the circular first and not to misinterpret the policy.
Asked on the statement by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed who said that the abolition of the policy on Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) could cause Malaysia to be left behind in the field of Science and Mathematics, Wee said the country should take the example of the successful economic powers such as China.
"They don't use English but they are still able to launch a rocket," he said.
Asked on the transitional period from PPSMI to MBMMBI which was said to take too long, he said the period was normal.
"The transition from one system to another system takes time; it was the same in the transition from English to Bahasa Melayu as a medium of instruction which took 12 years," he said.
MBMMBI replaces PPSMI
MBMMBI was introduced to replace PPSMI which will be abolished in 2012 after it was found that the policy failed to achieve its objectives to raise the standard of English among students.
At the same time the policy was also found to have affected the achievement of students in the two subjects, especially those in the rural areas.
At the ceremony today, Clifford Sia Yin Shen, 16, from Kian Kok Middle School, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah won three gold medals.
Several other students won two gold medals, namely Khalesa Mohammad Sharif, 10, from SK Convent(1) Bukit Nanas Kuala Lumpur; Bryan Ng Tung Chen, 9, from SJK (C) Sin Min A, Sungai Petani; Nicol Yong Jia Jia, 11, from Sekolah Sri Nobel, Kelana Jaya; Nigel Lee, 11, from SR Sri Sempurna, Kuala Lumpur; Tan Tian Rong, 17, from SMK St Francis, Melaka, and Chang Bing Yen, 18, from Han Chiang High School, Penang.
- Bernama
(2) English was once our competitive advantage, 5 November 2011
‘Why are we systematically and stubbornly destroying a language advantage that we possessed for years?'
PKR is against PPSMI, says Nik Nazmi
Onyourtoes: PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, please be informed that for students who are good in English, this is not because of PPSMI (Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English).
So the advantage you claimed will benefit those students from English-speaking families is not correct. Students from the English-speaking families would have the advantage in English language regardless of PPSMI.
Hence, if you reason logically, PPSMI should actually provide some advantage to the rural students and students not from English-speaking families.
Just look around you, Nik, who are the Malays holding high positions in the corporate sector, GLCs (government-linked companies), and even in statutory bodies and the civil service?
They are largely those with good command of English. If you want to talk about equalising our society, nothing could be more effective than providing an education that can change the mindset and language skill of our students, especially those from the rural areas.
And you talk about many countries that are now learning French, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic as their second language. Yes, they learn a second language after they have mastered English. What about us?
Why are we systematically and stubbornly destroying a language advantage that we possessed for years? I don't think the Malays were less capable in mastering English than non-Malays during the English schools era.
In fact, when they studied together in secondary schools, the Malays were better than many Chinese who came from the Chinese primary schools. Now English is like Greek to most Malaysians, especially the Malays. Please don't play to the gallery, Nik.
The essence of leadership is to provide change and long-term vision for the country, not catering to populist tendency.
If you ask a teacher who has no command of English language, if you ask a student who has never spoken a word of English, of course PPSMI is useless. But if you ask me, I want more than PPSMI, not for selfish reason, but for our national well-being.
Ashoka PJ: I agreed with Onyourtoes. I'm a Malay and both of my daughters articulate well in English. One works in a GLC and another in a leading bank.
Of course, they are at an advantage compared to other bumiputera because they can present themselves well and are not an embarrassment whenever investors come a' calling.
And my daughters' excelling in English is not because it was taught in school (as English was taught to the others as well), but because I took it upon myself to ensure that they communicate with me and their siblings in English at home.
And I have no regrets whatsoever. It is to my daughters' advantage and they are doing so much better than their friends who mastered only BM.
Good men: Stupid. This is not about learning English through Science and Maths. Don't obfuscate. It is about teaching Science and Maths in the language that it is used in.
If our people are to pursue careers in science, they need to be familiar with the terminology in English, not learn it in BM then, when they decide they wish to pursue science and mathematics in further education, suddenly have to do double work, learning new terminologies. Why handicap our budding scientists?
In addition to that, if you wish to be involved in any endeavour at the international level, then English competency is a must. We should try to be good in English because it is the lingua franca of the world. Wake up PKR.
Cascara: The Malays are the ones who are going to suffer eventually if the government rejects PPSMI.
Indian Malaysian students pick up English easily from friends and family. A high percentage of Indians are eloquent in English. Many communicate with family members in English. It becomes easy for them when they seek tertiary education overseas or employment in multinational companies.
The Chinese Malaysians do not fare too badly either. They will somehow acquire the necessary training in the language be it through additional tuition or at the British Council or just by studying overseas.
It is unfortunate that it will be the Malay Malaysians who will have difficulty acquiring fluency in the language as they prefer to use just Bahasa at school, university, home and the workplace, and seldom have a chance to converse in English or just prefer not to.
Anonymous_3dd9: It is a fact that English is the most common language used in sciences and mathematics, especially at research level.
It is also a fact that our students need to be prepared for further education abroad, mostly in English-speaking countries.
Even so, I don't think Malaysian parents object to teaching of Maths and Sciences in Bahasa Malaysia if our Maths and Science materials in BM and the quality of our teachers are up to standard.
Education minister, please look into these areas.
Good men: Nik Nazmi, being intent on learning English in order that we can be competitive in the real world is not an "obsession".
When you come to power, will you later say that our focus on free and fair elections is a "misplaced obsession with democracy"?
Kit P: Malaysia's "obsession" with English? On a visit to China, my host took me around a few of the educational institutions, both government-run and private, which are offering English-language lessons.
The classes are filled to the brim with students keen to learn English. Many see it as a key requirement to better jobs or a promotion.
Malaysia/Malaya started off with a good standard of English in its schools. Short-sighted (shall I say stupid?) government policy saw it necessary to downgrade English in order to promote Bahasa Malaysia.
So here we are 54 years later - the standard of English in our schools is ‘broken' - and all of Muhyiddin's horses and men can never put it back together again.
________________________________________
The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.
Like it or not, we need to master English
9:05AM Nov 6, 2011
YOURSAY 'The Malay community must wake up and start demanding that all government leaders send their children to local schools, colleges or universities.'
English was once our competitive advantage
Malaysian Born: The fact is we have no choice but to pursue a high standard of English for our children to ensure that their future is secure.
It is time that parents step up to the plate and make the future of their children the priority. They must hold government leaders to account, and warn them that they would punish them with their votes.
Bahasa Malaysia is important and should be taught in schools, but let's be clear - Malaysians need to be global players in order to survive. Excellence in English is not optional for our children.
Insider: I am Malay. Ini bukan masuk bakul angkat sendiri (This is not to praise myself). I just want to share my views for what it's worth.
I went to English-medium schools from Standard 1 to Form 6. My family speaks English at home.
My four children are all doctors. Amongst others, I attribute this to the English language. It was in 1970 when I was studying in Australia that the government decided to abolish English-medium schools.
I knew then that without the English language, the nation would lose its competitive edge. It's happening now. By the way, I am no lesser Malay by speaking English.
Reform: Our first language in the family is English. Our children and grandchildren start with English right from the day they can talk. They learn Malay when they enter the ‘tadika' (pre-school).
By the time they reach secondary education, they are conversant in both languages. That's how we manage to suit ourselves with the system. And we are Malay.
Johorean: Like many parents, my wife and I made sure our three children have the best head start in English by speaking to them in the language from the time they were born and invested heavily in their education so that they will be in the top 5 percentile in English.
Now we are glad that their standard of English is at least one to 3 years ahead of their peers in school, even at international level, and we are confident it will help them a great deal in their future pursuit, whatever field they choose to pursue.
We took this course of action because we cannot trust the government to provide a decent level of English education. If the government doesn't find a way to improve our poor English in school, we will be nowhere when countries like China catch up.
Geronimo: Sensing the emergence of China as the next economic giant, Singapore decided to make Mandarin the language of instruction. This was in the mid-80s.
After some trial runs, they found that it would be more advantageous if they were to retain English, and they were not wrong. In order to compete in the global market, Singaporeans are now proficient in two languages, English and Mandarin. But where are we?
Singaporeans know how to put round pegs in round holes, but Umno is trying to put square pegs in round holes.
If Umno say that our education system is as good as they say, then the Malay community must wake up and start demanding that all government leaders send their children to local schools, colleges or universities.
Anonymous: The children of BN leaders are being sent to foreign schools to study and become better off and better educated than their Malay counterpart from the kampongs.
The Malays are the ones to lose the most in the end. The rich Chinese send their children to study overseas and few return to serve the country.
The BN government is aware of this situation, but choose to remain stubborn just to please the ignorant rural Malays to gain votes.
Anonymous: Who is the culprit that destroyed the English-medium schools and replaced it with Bahasa-medium schools and caused a massive drop in the standard of our education in the country?
That culprit is still living and talks nonsense from time to time although his era is long gone.
Curious: Is there a way to stop people who are so eager in shooting themselves in the foot?
If they cannot see the benefit of being able to master English (not at the expense of the national language, of course) and even more so reject it for whatever reason, then my children can forget about their competitive advantage.
Father And Son: There is no point in debating what is good and what is bad, just ask the education minister who forced the decision down our throats which school their children are studying.
No 'flip-flop' in PPSMI issue, claims Muhyiddin
Free & Fair Election: DPM Muhyiddin Yassin, of course, it's no flip-flop. We know you have done your study and you have thought of the matter throughly many times.
But do us a favour - next time, when you think, think silently, will you?
My THOR: A million civil servants to run the government? Numbers do not matter. What count are the KRAs (key results areas) and KPIs (key performance indicators).
Many government servants do not really know their job scope/SOP (standard operation procedure) because there is no KRA demanded from them from their superiors. As a result, their productivity is questionable and subject to their political inclination.
As long as one is loyal to the Umno's government, their future is assured. Here lies the answer why Umno needs one million civil servants as the majority of them are party members and they are Umno's ‘fixed deposit'.
Anomnim: I want the same weed he is taking.
・The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda.
（End）
