A Black Wednesday for Malaysian education

Today I can't help but to mourn for the future of Malaysian next generation as today's Bernama headlines read as follows:

"The teaching and learning of science and mathematics in national schools will revert to the Malay language effective 2012. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the teaching and learning of the two subjects in Chinese and Tamil national-type schools would be carried out in their respective mother tongue" - Bernama

I find the rationale used for the change appalling. Let's look at them one by one:

Point #1

"Muhyiddin said monitoring by the ministry last year found that only a small group of teachers were using English language fully in the teaching of science and mathematics.

On the average, the percentage of English usage is between 53 and 58 per cent out of the total time allotted for science and mathematics" - Bernama

COMMENT : In that case, the solution is not scrapping the use of English to teach Maths and Science. The challenge is to train and encourage our teachers to use English thoroughly. Whenever there is a major change ie from Malay to English, there is always inertia to move back to original application ie conduct teaching in BM. Hence, in order to make it effective, we must have the political will and determination to make the change. I must say we have lost the plot !

Point #2

"The gap in achievement between urban and rural schools in science and mathematics was becoming wider when the PPSMI (teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English) was implemented.The command of the English language among students, particularly in the rural areas, was still low making it difficult for them to understand the teaching of mathematics and science in English," Muhyiddin said.

Based on this observation, he said, the government was convinced that science and mathematics must be taught in the language that could be easily understood by the students, namely Bahasa Malaysia in the national schools, Chinese in the national-type Chinese schools and Tamil in the national-type Tamil schools.
" - Bernama

COMMENT : I fail to see the point here. It is expected that additional challenge will be created if subjects are not taught in the mother tounge. But given the depth of literature relating to science and mathematics that are written in BM is relatively light, lack of command of English will actually limit the amount of knowledge that can be gathered by our young ones. Again, granted that the issue is real but the solution is have a separate initiative to strengthen the command of the English language of our rural students. The effect of the reversion of policy will actually serve as a hindrance to our rural students to expand their quest for knowledge notably in the science and mathematics area.

All I can say is that we indeed has moved backward in our education policy. Such reversal in policy will definitely put a dent in our future competitiveness in the increasing competitive global marketplace. We seem to take the easy way out at the expense of long term growth and development of the country.

As for my Jeremy and the sibling on the way, education utopia will remain elusive at the back of such regressive policy. But I refuse to give up hope and will strive to still find the best solution for them becos I certainly for one believe that a good education is the greatest gift as a parent (Not inheritance) can give to them, for education will unlock the key to make a person a better man/lady.