James S does not minced his words. His comments under Breaking Views in the Malaysian Insider today (10 July) is a mouthful.Who does he fault for the failure of the policy of teaching Maths and Science in English after 6 years? The systemic failure of government implementation,that's who! As he puts it succinctly,didn't we suffer from the same implementation problems all round from the NEP,MSC and to the PKFZ?
To him, education is not a zero sum game. The aim is always to learn more, to expand the scope of one’s knowledge. It is not about selectively choosing a few bits of trivia to cram into a limited space.
The human mind, especially when at a young age, is infinitely capable of expanding and absorbing knowledge. Unless it is constantly told that it cannot, that there are limits here and more limits there, until it becomes convinced that it really, truly, cannot. Then, it cannot.
Improving one’s knowledge of one language does not automatically lead to decline in another. It’s not like we have only 100 units of capacity to hold language, and giving 50 to one means only 50 left for another. If capacity for knowledge could be measured, then the aim should be to go from 100 to 200, then 300, and on and on.
Many Europeans, especially those from the smaller nations, now speak English, French, German and Spanish or Italian in addition to their own mother tongues. Even here, many Malaysians already speak two or three languages plus 3, 4 or 5 dialects.
In the brouhaha over the latest government reversal of policy on the use of English in teaching Maths and Science (PPSMI), many people are furious because they perceive it as turning away from English.
He disagree with their sentiments. He said he was not celebrating the government’s move, though. It's because he does not know the government’s real motives and, more importantly, what the government will accomplish with its next set of plans in the years to come. After all, they just admitted to having failed miserably.
What he did know is that the government has a track record of coming out with ideas that sound good on paper but fail miserably, followed by the inevitable lame excuse: “It was a good plan/policy but there were weaknesses in implementation”. (Need examples? Think of NEP, MSC, PKFZ, corruption, timber thefts, poaching ….)
Just as success in real estate is about “location, location and location,” and success in the stock market is the tritest of trite “buy low, sell high”, the success of any plan is, obviously, in “the implementation, the implementation, and the implementation”.
So, PPSMI has failed. Why has it failed? Isn’t it obvious? No?
Well, the decline in English has been in progress for some time, at least well over a decade.
Sure, there were still some students who excelled in English. But with shrinking supply and growing demand (globalisation, remember?), many went on to good jobs that paid well. Are government teachers paid well, compared to the high-flying commercial sector?
So, you get teachers who have mediocre command of English, and they teach English. Heard of the blind leading the blind? Who has not heard anecdotal accounts of students complaining to daddy or mummy that the stupid teacher marked them wrong when, in fact, they were correct?
Then, someone decided that, in order to arrest the decline, the brilliant solution is to get teachers of Science and Maths (and not English, mind you) to teach these subjects in English. And just like that, we will suddenly achieve world-class standards in Science, Maths AND English.
Heard the one about the ugly hunchback genius professor who married the gorgeous dumb blonde so that they would have kids as smart as him and as good-looking as her? Well, the offspring could turn out looking like him and dumb (apologies to all blondes, it’s just a cliche) as her!
So, is anyone surprised that PPSMI might actually result in even lower standards of Maths, Science AND English? It was not even a good plan badly implemented. A good plan has to take into account the resources with which the plan is to be implemented. Since the resources needed for PPSMI to work – an adequate supply of Maths & Science teachers who are also fluent in English – were clearly not available, it was just a dumb plan.
For these reasons, he does not mourn the passing of PPSMI.
He said he has neither the time nor the inclination to engage in debate with the ultras who rejoice because the end of PPSMI is a victory, a return to their utopia ideal where all problems disappear when everyone speaks just one language, their mother tongue. They cry “victory” in the battle, let’s see how they fare at the end of the war.
The pressing need to improve English standards remains, obviously.
The government says it will step up efforts. There is time, and it will work this time, says our Education Minister.
Question is, do you trust the government to get it done right this time?
He feels that his faith in the government’s ability ranks about as highly as the standard of English in our schools these days.
So, what to do? Do it yourself. Teach your kids English, or pay to have them taught properly.
As for himself, he is investing in an English tuition centre.
What a gem of a piece! Straight off the gun like Ringo!
More tuition centres will surely sprout out like towgays very soon as parents rushed their children to brush up their English through tuition so as to bridge the already yawning gap between a distintion A English as compared to a mediocre grade.
Mind you,2012 is not too far away!
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