It looks as if the teaching of Maths and Science in English has reached a cross-roads.
There have been protests against the teaching of two subjects in English while others claim the approach is helpful.
The flip-flopping over the years has not helped.
It is possible that many teachers, especially in rural areas, were not ready to teach those two subjects in English. At the same time, the standard of English has dropped over the years.
If the objective is to improve the standard of English, then much will depend on the quality of English-language teachers. A revamp of the curriculum and teacher-training would be required. More time should be allocated in school timetables for the actual teaching of English. Bring back grammar, literature appreciation and essay writing.
So where to, now?
Whether you think it’s helpful or not depends on whether you are in the rural areas or urban areas. In rural areas std of English is very poor and most parents can’t read/speak English and so can’t help their children with Maths & Science. This means rural students are disadvantaged w.r.t. urban children. Instead of falling behind in 1 subject (English) which is non-compulsory, they fall behind in 3.
On the other hand, English is the language of the Sciences so if you want to expand your knowledge, then you need to be familiar with English.
There’s no clear cut victory on this issue for either camp. Personally, my opinion is if you want to improve English, emphasize on English subject instead of trying to improve English through technical subjects.
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People never fail to end up in that usual creek of shite when they let self-serving politicians play with education and turn it into a game of political football instead of making it the highest priority investment for the country followed by investment in good health and then the economy.
So in order for you to say, quite rightly, “it’s the economy, stupid” you first need to have good education and good health as your twin national bulwarks.
Otherwise by the natural law of human economics, your nationals will end up being paid in peanuts and treated as cheap disposable commodity fodder and used to power-up and enrich other much smarter and stronger national economies.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
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Like most issue with education, the choice really should be up to Parents and Teachers and the problem began and continue to be the fact the govt or rather the politicians are making the decision.
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I believe applied exposure is the best way to learn a language.
If schools are only happy to have BM spoken and written, where do educationists expect the students to apply what they have learnt if no help is coming from their own homes?
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Malaysia will never mature, going backward instead of moving forward. The well to do (middle class & rich) will send their children to international schools or even overseas, left the poor in national / type schools to rot. Sigh!!!!!!!
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A solid compromise that will raise English language standards, give liberty to parents, and increase academic competition is to revert to the pre-1975 system of (1) reopening the English medium primary schools, (2) switch to English on technical subjects only in high school for vernacular school students, (3) teach commerce/econ/accounting also in English.
Here is a good argument: http://thenutgraph.com/scaling-the-language-barrier
People who argue in favor of English for math and science in primary schools overlook many factors. They have only beginning to realize the first 2 arguments below. There are several more buried by government propaganda, and not captured by the Merdeka Center poll:
1. Teaching science and math in English can’t be effective in rural and lower-class area. Parents, grandparents, aunty and uncle, neighborhood tutors can’t tutor them effectively and at low cost in English.
2. That it is a fallacy to mix the goals of raising the standard of English with increasing national unity. This assumes English can do away with or hide the evils NEP and corruption done on unity and fairness.
3. That teaching Math and science in English will raise English standard. This is is an untested and weak assumption, accepted too uncritically by parents eager to grab at any straw to escape the poor quality of our education system.
4. Young children cognitively grope and learn about the world in their mother tongue. Forcing English upfront is confusing them. Only around high school when language becomes just another logical tool can the switch be easier.
5. Commerce students are sacrified and stuck in Malay. But commercial/econ/financial sector English is even more demanding then in science. Are we not trading internationally?
6. Most people don’t realize this: Malaysia has a large number of families whose mother tongue is English. Let them have their choice and reopen the English medium school to teach their children in their mother tongue.
Instead, many English-educated parents are taking their anger and frustration out on the vernacular schools, subverting and subconsciously trying to turn the Chinese vernacular schools into “de facto” English schools. That can never be an effective solution; its neither here nor there.
At the same time, they unwisely lend their politically weight to the UMNO authoritarians whose flip-flop thoughtlessness destroys sections after sections of Malaysian schools.
Historically, the English-educated rather meekly accepted the destruction of the English-medium school by UMNO. They should rather take a cue from Mar 2008 and stand up against the UMNO authoritarian and demand the re-opening of English-medium school! Just don’t destroy Chinese vernacular schools where Chinese-mother-tongue children can learn better….
7. Reopening English medium schools may be difficult immediately. So start with the conversion only in High School. Include commerce courses. That is still a big step from the 1976-2003 situation where HS is all in Malay (except languages).
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Read the recent policy announcement by the current Minister of Education on the future direction of the education system there.
IMO, the new (myopic, self-serving, voter-pandering and election winning?) policy direction seems to be based on that smart statement by that Forrest Gump character who said: Stupid is as stupid does.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
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I read your article about teaching the English language in Malaysia and I was hoping to ask for your advice…
My name is Chris and my wife is a Malaysian Chinese and I grew up and studied up to “A” levels in Singapore and she has the equivalent from the Malaysian education system.
We have lived here in San Diego in the US for the past 15 years and we’re discussing moving back to KL within the next 6 months to a year. We have pretty much all questions and factors accounted for except the part of education for our children.
My daughter is currently in 5th grade and my son is in 2nd grade. My concern is that if we move back; are they going to have a huge challenge with being educated in Malaysia because they do not speak the Malay language. I’ve done a little bit of research but cannot conclusively find any schools (with the exception of American, British and International schools) that teach the various subjects in English. We’ve considered the international schools but they are a little out of our budget/price range.
So, my question is; are there any other schools in KL that my children would be able to go to and get into the education system where they will study in English.
This is one of the last questions that we need to confirm before we make our final decision on whether to move back or not.
Can you please offer any suggestions or advice about this?
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Hi Chris,
Apart from the international schools, I’m afraid I haven’t come across any other Malaysian schools offering an English-medium education.
The other alternative is to look into home-study programmes, though I don’t have much information on this.
Anil
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I don’t understand why those pejuang bahasa focus on science and maths while the bahasa crisis is much, much more than this! Why are most local websites only in English whilst some American websites have BM versions? Memalukan! We should call for all local websites to be in bahasa, be bilingual at least! I’m not against BM as bahasa ilmu but what’s d point if it can’t be a full-fledged communication tool?
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