Or more commonly known as PPSMI-Polisi Pelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris has just been scrapped by the Government.
The Deputy Prime Minister who also happens to be the Education Minister announced that from 2012 onwards, the teaching of Science and Matematics will be reverted back to Bahasa Melayu in national schools and mother tongues in vernacular schools.
I am not a great fan of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad but his decision in 2003 to implement the aforementioned policy was the right decision. It was a decision made to ensure that the future generations of Malaysia will be capable to become the creme de la crop of the world.
I strongly support his decision because of the below few reasons:
1. English is the international language. Most of the new books, thesii, magazines and journals on science and mathematics are published in English. No one in the world other than Malaysians and Indonesians speak Malay. By teaching our students science in English, we are eliminating the need to translate the said reading material from English to Malay.
2. Most of the science and math terms are in English. By educating the students science and math in english, they do not have to remember weird translated malay terms that doesn't really makes sense at all. They just have to remember the proper latin or english term which makes far more sense.
3. English is probably the most important language in the world. Love it or hate it, you cannot thrive in this world without knowing how to speak English. By teaching 2 of the most crucial subjects in English, we are forcing our students to use English to commuicate, thus, increasing their ability to speak and use the language.
I am sure there are people out there who are far more articulate than I am and who will post dozens of reasons for the implementation of the above programme.
However, some myopic politicians and so called "educators" seem to believe that by educating our future generations science and math in English, the students are losing the ability to speak Bahasa Malaysia and thus eroding the our national identity and culture.
I seriously don't see how learning English can cause a person to lose his national identity. Its like saying that a Brazilian who learns how to play tennis is losing his national identity as his national sport is Soccer.
They also cited that the grasp of English among students have not improved after the implementation of the above policy. Yeh dur, the policy was just implemented 6 years ago. Give it another 10 years, then judge its effectiveness. Obviously it takes time to wipe clean the effects or rather the damage in learning both subjects in malay for the past 20 years.
Then again, some also said that the teachers are not qualified to teach both subjects in English and thus, there's a shortage of teachers. Well, obviously they are not qualified since they were taught to learn Science and Math in malay. Again, the shortage of teachers in public schools is due to the ungodly amount of paperwork, the unsociable hours of work and the low pay. Jack up the pay and cut down the red tape, then there'll be an increase in teachers.
The move to revert the teaching of both subjects back to BM is a very shortsighted, pathetic, myopic and narrowminded decision made by stupid and silly politicians who obviously do not value the importance of international understanding.
I can imagine our top scientists participating in international scientific conferences with their knowledge of the english language.
Conference: Plant roots absorb mineral ions from the soil through active transport.
Scientist #1 from Malaysia: Apa tu active transport?
Scientist #2 from Malaysia: Boleh makan ar?
Scientist #3 from Malaysia: Bodohnya, itu roots makan ions lar......
=_=.
Thank God I am in the international stream.
Labels: Socio-Politics
