My Thoughts on PPSMI

Final decision has been made to reintroduce the teaching of maths and science in mother tongue from year 2012 onwards. This massive change will be accompanied by an increase in the hour of English lesson, and also some other policies aiming at strengthening the basic command of English language among Malaysian students.

There has been a series of protests and data provided by NGO to rebut the effectiveness of PPSMI in educating our children nowadays. Question has been raised by the parents whether our teachers were ready to conduct math and science classes fully and effectively in English. While few teachers can communicate fluently in English, many students especially those who do not have english-speaking background and also students in the rural areas failed to receive benefits from the implementation of PPSMI.

Personally, I second the decision made by the cabinet, although they should have realized the problems occurred in PPSMI long ago and fixed the problems right away.

People must accept the facts that:

1. Most Malaysians and their kids do not have english-speaking background, and therefore, what they need is a more effective and acceptable way of learning their second or third language.

Malaysian kids should be given more English language lessons and be exposed to a series of effective ways of learning the international language.

2. PPSMI was not carefully planned and its strategy failed miserably although hundreds of millions of ringgit was generously poured into this education project.

Besides wasting a large sum of money to corruptions and ali baba projects, the time, energy and money spent on our education policies are obviously impotent effort to help improving the standard of English language among our students, let alone learning math and science in English (PPSMI).

Funding for more teaching materials and training for English teachers is absolutely necessary to increase the command of English of Malaysian students.

3. Teachers did not receive adequate trainings, time, and resources to switch the language medium in math and science subjects from BM to English. In fact, especially in national schools, MANY teachers are still using Bahasa Malaysia to conduct math and science lessons.

4. It is one of the dumbest idea to learn language through math and science, or otherwise. Before children can start learning math and science from the books, they MUST be able to, at least, understand the usage of language itself. Language acts as a MEDIUM to deliver messages and knowledge, while Math and Science are very technical and complicated SKILLS for the young.

Attempting to master math and science through a language medium which they are not familiar with, is just not going to work out. PPSMI is useless unless everyone in Malaysia is ready to adopt the use of English in their everyday lives; this would mea our Bahasa Malaysia and other languages will lose their values and priority on this land.

5. Not learning Math and Science in English does not necessarily means we will become not competitive internationally. Japan, Germany and France are good examples of how the native language of one country can provide their own people with the most updated technologies and information. Please don't tell me that we cannot make it because we're Malaysians; if we never try, we will never achieve anything.

What we need are more passion and realistic hard work in developing our own knowledge and ideas in the field of science & technology; it doesn't make us a more clever nation by learning everything else in English if we can't even construct a proper sentence using that language.

6. I left out this point earlier.

To teach math and science in mother tongue is vital for primary school level. During primary school level, children start to fortify their command of languages. Children in primary school level are best educated in their mother tongue for math and science subjects. Teaching Math and Science in a language which students are familiar with will obviously yield better results.

However, PPSMI can be retained in the higher secondary school level when they have stronger command of English ( which is a second language to many Malaysians), to equip them for the next level of higher education, like STPM, Matrikulasi and Universities . It's during secondary school when students will most probably have sufficient confidence and ability to learn new knowledge in their second language.

Below is the news report from The Star:

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MATH AND SCIENCE BACK TO BAHASA, MOTHER TONGUE (UPDATED)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has decided that the medium of instruction for Maths and Science will revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national schools and mother-tongue languages in national-type schools from 2012 onwards.

The reversal of the Teaching of Math and Science in English (PPSMI) policy will be done in stages, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on Wednesday.

He however added that there will be greater emphasis on learning the English language.

English literature will be re-introduced, as will subjects on grammar and composition.

Beginning 2012, students in Year One and Year Four in primary schools, and Form One and Form Four in secondary schools, will learn Math and Science in Bahasa Malaysia.

The change will not affect those in Form Six and Matriculation.

The two subjects will be taught in two languages until 2014 for other students, he said.

“The gap between rural and urban students has widened since PPSMI started.

“Only 19.2% of secondary teachers and 9.96% of primary teachers were sufficiently proficient in English,” he said, explaining the Government’s decision to revert to the old system.

On efforts to emphasise the learning of English, the number of English teachers would be increased by 13,933 -- retirees would be hired, as well as foreigners if need be.

Primary schools will also increase English classes by 90 minutes a week.

There have been calls from various groups for the policy to revert to before 2003, when the subjects were taught in Bahasa Malaysia in national schools, and either in Chinese or Tamil in national-type schools.

The issue has seen a rare alliance between Malay and Chinese educationists, who are against the switch, although there are also calls by many parents and entrepreneurs for English to be maintained.

C Guevara