The Kuala Lumpur Traveler

All of us Malaysian know, the decision taken by the Ministry of Education to teach Science and Mathematics in English was in fact done in a hasty way and without any solid evidence that a thorough study was conducted before the policy was implemented. Teachers, parents and concerned citizens raised their concerns to the Ministry of Education but it fell on deaf ears of our ’smart’ politicians and policy-makers, who went ahead anyway with the idea of teaching the two most critical subjects not using our mother tounge language.

Well that was a big mistake and those who have voiced out their grieves knew that in the end it will be another failure of the power that be in their efforts to raise the standard of Malaysian education. In fact, it was a ticking bomb waiting to explode, unfortunately, right in the face us Malaysian.

The report by Star Online today should be a good lesson-learnt for the Malaysian education policy makers in the future, but will this be too much too expect from them? Will they ever learn from their mistakes?

Hisham: Exams to remain bilingual

By KAREN CHAPMAN

KUALA LUMPUR: It is definite – students will continue to have the option of using two languages for Science and Mathematics subjects in public examinations.

Responding to various reports on the matter, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein reiterated that the Government had decided to maintain the status quo.

“It will remain bilingual,” he told reporters after presenting prizes to the winners of the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge.

The biggest problem, he added, concerned those in primary schools and rural schools.

“If we insist on one language, there will be a major impact on these pupils and will increase the gap between those in rural and urban areas. So we will maintain the bilingual approach,” he said.

He was clarifying news reports yesterday which had quoted him as saying that the decision not to force students to use only English for the two subjects in the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) would only be confined to next year.

Hishammuddin said much also depended on the teachers’ abilities, noting that while many had been trained, there was room for further improvement.

“Maintaining the policy won’t affect anyone, as students will have the option of answering in English, Chinese, Tamil or Bahasa Malaysia, depending on their capabilities,” he said.

The policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English was implemented in phases, starting off with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003, and the initial plan was to have students answer only in English for these subjects from next year.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had announced that UPSR candidates would continue to have the choice of taking the two subjects in either English or Bahasa Malaysia or the vernacular language of their school.

Hishammuddin had then said on Sunday that secondary students would also continue to have the dual-language option in public examinations.

Meanwhile, the minister also said at the function that the focus for November under the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 would be on strengthening national schools. He said this was to ensure that they would be the school of choice.

“We want to improve their performance in various areas and offer programmes that meet the requirements of parents from different backgrounds,” he said.

Source: Star Online

[tags]Science, Mathematics, English, education[/tags]

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