Monday, February 16, 2009

Much ado about BM

Honestly I believe the issue of teaching of Science and Math in English is going too far.

Police report made, street demo; columns and columns of arguments in the newspaper.

Honestly I think we should look at it with our children and grandchildren in mind, and not for any political mileage for anyone. I think too this sort of policy should be decided by the policy maker without interference from those with vested (political) interest.

God helps us all with the quality of our graduates that we are churning nowadays, if at least in their spoken and written English's skills.

I have written about my own experience from my first year at the uni at Monash back in the 80's as the first batch of Malaysian students to be educated solely in the local language. I guess back then it was a triumph of the nationalists to get rid of the language of the colonialists.

It was a disaster for me. Read it here.

Honestly looking back at my mum and dad, and my elder sis lucky enough to go through 11 years in her primary and secondary education purely in English, I can't see a reason why we should be so afraid of educating our kids in the language of the world. English didn't make bapak, mak and my sis an orang putih celup. In many ways, they are more Malay than say many of us who were educated in BM. 

I think that policy introduced in 1970 was a disaster as far as I am concerned. Since then, the standard of English has been deteriorating and is currently in the dump. We should not only be teaching our kids science and math in English. The whole medium for our school should be in English.

I know I shall receive brick-bats from many. But the past years and the past weeks I have done many interviews as I am looking to hire engineers. I cringe everytime they attempt to open up their mouths. But I need to hire someone with reasonable skills in the English language, whether I like it or not.

Let's do it for our kids - for their future.

2 comments:

  1. Well Abg Man, allow me to give my 2cents comments on this issue.

    First of all, I do agree if we wanted to teach student the English languages, it must be in proper manner i.e. all subjects in English as ITM does, which improve my English tremendously!!!, not just certain subject like maths & science as this will make student confused and therefore losing the interest(term it as ROJAK)

    These was the issue and the solutions is indeed actually better to teach using mother tongue languages.

    The other problem here in Malaysia, the paperwork and planning are very impressive, up to extend some educational expert thought Malaysia is among the best, but in reality, when it comes to implementation...there goes..kaput...'Maths teacher who speak no inglish' just like former Selangor's MB are expected to teach Maths with English Instruction.

    I believe this issue will be ended soon, as the policy will be reverted to Bahasa Instruction

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  2. Aisey AbgMan....

    Lets get back to the core of the problems.....

    It was Mahathirs business delegation who started all these problems.....

    Most of his officers cant really communicate very well in English that makes Mahathir goes insane....

    In order to punish them he created all these craps......

    Wheres the logic here???

    Sounds like the zionist killing the palestinians because they were so angry of German Nazis holocaust...right....??

    If you loves English very much....then you should add more English subjects such as English Literature in the class....

    Make it at least 2 hours instead of 45 minutes for English subject.....daily...

    I have to admit even if you teach me math and science in malay i cannot really understand the equation....then what do you expect from me when you teach me math and science in total English.....????

    No wonder becoming Mat Rempits is easier than staying at school.....

    No heart feeling aaa.....hehehehehe...

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