Is PPSMI here to stay? Decision to be revealed in early June.

Tear gas was fired by the police near Istana Negara to disperse the crowd in the demonstration against PPSMI.

Sasterawan Negara, A.Samad Said, confronting two policemen while taking part in the Anti-PPSMI demonstration. (A Samad Said is also my favorite Malay poet. I love this picture so much.)

It has been a 6-long years of debate whether or not the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English implemented during Mahathir's era should be abolished. The Government has revealed its plan to make the crucial decision latest by early July this year, on the education policy which cost governments hundreds of million ringgit.

Muhyiddin Yassin told the Parliament that this policy has only a small effect in increasing the overall results (around 2-3%) of Mathematics and Science all these years. He also said that the poor command of English among Science and Mathematics teachers has contributed to this situation, whereby not much improvements were seen in the standard of these two subjects after the policy was implemented 6 years ago.

I personally support using mother tongue as medium in teaching Mathematics and Science in PRIMARY school level, and then only introduce the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in SECONDARY level. This will certainly provide students with better understanding in these two subjects, rather than wanting our kids to learn Science and Maths before they even know how to communicate properly in English. I'll discuss more about this issue later in other post.

READ ALSO MY MOST RECENT POSTING ON PPSMI HERE

The following news is extracted from The Star News paper:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will make its decision on the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (better known by its Malay acronym PPSMI) early next month, Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.

He said the Government’s full analysis and the ministry paper on the PPSMI policy have been completed and will be handed over to the Cabinet for deliberation soon.

“We will make a full announcement by early July.

“Whatever decision that comes out will be for the people’s benefit and goes in line with the Prime Minister’s ‘people first’ vision,” he told Parliament.

He said that a study conducted by the ministry and researchers from local universities revealed that overall, teachers and students achieved only a moderate level of knowledge in English.

“The ministry’s focus then is to improve English knowledge among teachers and students by improving the training programme for teachers and improving the learning of English in schools.

“We are looking into introducing English literature in schools to improve students’ knowledge of the language, and the functions of the school computer laboratories will also be upgraded with better software and equipment for the teaching of English subject.

“The Ministry also wants to resolve the gap between the achievements in English of students in the urban and rural areas since the PPSMI policy was introduced in phases in 2003.

“The final decision in the implementation of the PPSMI policy will also look into the policy’s effect on students in both urban and rural areas,” he said in reply to Dr Tan Seng Giaw (DAP-Kepong).

C Guevara