In an apparent response to ex-premier Mahathir's disappointment with the scrapping of English as the medium of instruction in teaching Mathematics and Science beginning 2012, PM Najib defended the decision by saying that the spirit remains. He countered that the decision to teach mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue languages will not detract the government from its efforts to make Malaysians more proficient in English.
Najib said it was still the Government’s aim to see Malaysians proficient in the language and even master it so that it could compete in the ever challenging times and globalised era.
“The aim remains the same; there is no change. Only the method in reaching the objective is now different."
“The government is aware how important it is for Malaysians to be proficient in English for their own advantage and for the future of the country."
“In fact, increasing the time allocated to teaching English, introducing English literature and language laboratories, among others will be a better method in boosting proficiency than teaching mathematics and science in the language,” he said when commenting on the matter.
Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday had announced that mathematics and science would be taught in Bahasa Malaysia from 2012 and English would be given prominence with the teaching of the language beefed up from next year.
The decision also saw the two subjects being taught solely in Chinese national-type primary schools and no longer bilingually as was practiced since 2003 while Tamil schools would revert to the mother tongue as the medium of instruction instead of English.
In reversing ETeMS policy or better known by its Malay acronym PPSMI, the government had also announced the hiring of an additional 13,966 English teachers, increasing up to 100% the time allocated to teaching English in schools and introducing new elements for teaching of English such as grammar, contemporary literature, information technology and language laboratory.
The PPSMI policy was implemented in phases, beginning with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003, under former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Najib said teaching mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia again would not pose a problem as it had been proven that “we can produce doctors and professionals by teaching the subjects in Bahasa Malaysia.”
“Many doctors went through the education system in Bahasa Malaysia, right through university. For example, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia has produced a number of good doctors."
“There is no question about quality being compromised or affected,” he said, adding the cost of reverting the decision had yet to be determined but present hardware and software used for the earlier purpose could still be used.
To a question, the Prime Minister said it would be up to the Education Ministry to consider giving certain schools the option to continue with the PPSMI policy.
“Currently, we only see 8% of teachers really confident in teaching PPSMI. In reality, it is not really happening the way we had envisaged,” he said.
On the question of critical allowance given to teachers involved in teaching mathematics and science in English, he said it would be another issue that the government had to handle, adding some were more concerned about their allowance than the overall objective of reversing the policy.
At another press conference later, the Prime Minister, who was asked to comment on a survey held in Dr Mahathir’s blog on the issue said there was no unanimous views when it came to the issue of education but the government had to make a decision best for the future of students.
“We see our decision as an opportunity to encourage the proficiency of English and at the same time, will not prevent the development of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language as well as the language of knowledge,” he said.
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has set up a blog poll to prove that the government’s decision to stop teaching Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) was a mistake.
Dr Mahathir, who mooted the PPSMI policy, said he was not surprised over the disappointment and anger towards the Government’s decision on the teaching of Maths and Science.
“Seems to me like the Government is not listening to the voice of the people."
“Perhaps a blog poll might enlighten the Government as to the opinions of the people,” he said in his blog www.chedet.co.cc.
The blog’s one-question poll, asks readers to click ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as to whether they supported the government’s decision to teach Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia.
As of 7pm Thursday, 74% or 5,463 respondents responded ‘No’. Readers were only allowed to vote once.
Dr Mahathir said he would try to inform the government of the public’s opinion.
“The question to be answered is whether visitors to my blog support or oppose the decision to teach Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia,” he added.
However, another former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi agreed with the Government’s move to revert to Bahasa Malaysia in teaching Maths and Science.
He said that there had already been strong pressures to reverse the policy during his tenure.
After discussion with the education minister, he said a decision was made to go on with the policy for another 6 years for a better analysis.
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