BACK TO ENGLISH IN SCHOOLS

Education Minister cum Deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin has come out with this preposterous proposal i.e. to import 300 English tutors from the United States to teach English in schools at a cost of RM 18 million. I remembered, when I began learning English at primary school, it wasn’t a teacher from England that taught me the language. It was our very own teacher from Malaya that taught me English. That was back in the late 40’s and early 50’s.

Now in the era of the new millennium, Malaysia that is heading towards a develop nation status is importing English tutors, not from traditional England, India or Sri Lanka, but from the US. And don’t Muhyiddin know that with US English tutors, our students will end up more confused with different English spellings? This was something similar to what the Malay language had gone through i.e. Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Baku and finally Bahasa Malaysia. Mana satu yang betul, saya pun tak tahu.

I was in India attending a staff course and we had students from most of the Commonwealth, Middle Eastern, and European countries. Most spoke and wrote English the British way. The odd US officer on the course was a bit confused at the way our Indian instructors delivered and wrote their instructions. Of course, the Indians wrote perfect English, the way that we were taught by our own teachers at school in the early days. If I could remember, most of my English teachers were Indians right through my secondary class. This was not at all surprising because during pre independent days, English teachers were brought in from India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

I do not know why Muhyiddin preferred US English tutors? Don’t tell me that Jamaludiin Jarjis, our Ambassador in the US has something to do with this. Why not try bringing in English teachers from India and there will be thousands willing to come here to teach at a much cheaper rate; and certainly a much needed saving for the government. The other benefit is that these Indian teachers can assimilate themselves quite easily with Malaysians because there are many Malaysians of Indian origin, and the food is somewhat similar. Other than that I think, their personal demands will be much less than US tutors.

The idea of importing English language tutors is a sign of desperation and a failure of our education system. This is what happens when we appoint ministers who are not an educationist, and upon their appointment they would be thinking of what policies to make to be left as their ‘legacy’. Normally such policies are good only for the short term and it does not really matter its impact on students on the long term. The use of the Malay language itself is a sterling example.

Speaking of the Malay language, I remembered being a Directing Staff at the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College (MAFSC) where I was directed to take a syndicate (class) of officers who are less proficient in the English language. These are officers who were ‘victims’ (through no fault of theirs) of the change of our education policy that emphasizes upon the use of Bahasa Malaysia in schools, rather than English.

I was totally unprepared to take on this responsibility; not that I do not know Bahasa Malaysia, but all along the military courses that I had attended were in English. Furthermore, the teaching manuals used at MAFSC were entirely in English, and worse still there were no reference on military terminologies for military tactics in Bahasa Malaysia. There is a saying in the military that ‘military tactics is purely the understanding of military terminologies’. You understand terminologies, you will understand tactics. To end the confusion, the class and I decided to do a mix i.e. to use both English and Bahasa Malaysia.

To Muhyiddin, I have this to say i.e. it would be better for the long term to start getting our very own teachers to teach English. Of course, they need to be properly trained and if we can train them to be experts in the language, their expertise can be gainfully used for a life time. We have actually being left behind in the use and proficiency of the English language compared to our neighbours, and I remembered a retired Malaysian Ambassador say this to me, “ Arshad, I had difficulties in getting my young graduate staff officers to write good and proper English. In the end, I have to do their job”.

Let us now be consistent with our policies, and leaving behind a legacy is not what we want of ministers.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

WILL SEKOLAH MENENGAH SAINS MIRI, BAKAM, SARAWAK GET AIR CONDITION CABINS?

Would you believe that around late last year, the Sarawak State Education Department has issued an order for Sekolah Menengah (SM) Sains Miri,Bakam Sarawak to be closed; a school of approximately 400 students, and the students transferred to SMK Tinjar, Lapok, Sarawak, which is situated 120 km away? Do you know the reason for the closure of the school and the stupidity of having 400 students dislocated 120km away? Does the State Education Department or for that matter, the Ministry of Education not know the enormous logistical and administrative inconveniences of having 400 new students enrolled into the new school, that may or may not be ready to accept a large enrollment of new students? And what about the resultant inconvenience to be suffered by the students themselves?

Upon reading more of the issue, I realized that the reason for the proposed relocation of students was that some of the classes at SM Sains Miri were found unsuitable and unsafe to be used as classrooms. I guess the classes are in a dilapidated state, and this may be because there was no form of preventive maintenance taken on the classrooms over a protracted period of time. This may cause the classrooms to be left to sheer neglect, and even if the school had requested for funds for maintenance, I suspect the request may have been turned down. And if this assumption of mine is true, then I would like to suggest that the Sarawak State Director of Education resigns immediately. I think he no longer has any more reason to remain the Director.

After much protestation by the school’s Parents Teachers Association and a meeting held with the Education Ministry’s Director General, it was decided that the school be reopened, and temporary classes be hastily constructed, including to use of cabins. This is laughable, and can someone tell me whether cabin makes suitable classrooms? And this reminds me of the former Armed Forces Academy (now known as Universiti Pertahanan Malaysia) where they too had cabins as temporary classrooms, but these are air conditioned cabins. Is the Sarawak Education Department thinking of fixing air condition to the cabins as well?

I suspect that there are similar and larger issues affecting schools in Sarawak, especially those that are in the interior. I do not know if the Minister of Education has ever visited schools in the interior, say in places like Julau, Song, Katibas, Bakalalan, Bario or even Serian. I had seen a number of schools in interior Sarawak during my days in the Army, and I think the conditions of the schools are no better today.

My bit of advice to the Education Minister is that with the General Elections looming, please do make your calls to these isolated schools in the interior of Sabah and Sarawak. You will be surprised that these schools are in dire need of help. After all, it is your responsibility to ensure that students who are the country’s future, are afforded the best possible education, regardless of where and who they are.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

TEACHING OF ENGLISH – ANOTHER VIEW

Having claimed that the Education Ministry had failed in its policy with regards to the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in primary schools, they now say that the teaching of English will now begin at pre-schools. It will interesting to see how such a policy will be implemented by the Education Ministry, and whether they will succeed with this policy. Definitely, the results can only be seen in no less than 5 years from today, or thereabout.

We were taught in military schools that if having failed in a particular piece of military operation, we should not try to force another plan with the view to winning the failed military operation. The military term used here is ‘to reinforce failure’, because reinforcing failure will lead to more failure.

In planning a military operation, we should not allow a situation where the enemy can overwhelm us. If we allow the enemy to overwhelm us, and to take control of the battle area, it will be much more difficult for us to regain what has been lost. The option to adopt when faced with such a situation would be:

1. To be reinforced early using the reserves available before the enemy is able to overwhelm us, with the view to sustaining the battle, and weakening the enemy’s resolve.
2. If reserves are not available, to withdraw to be regrouped to fight another day’s battle; thus avoiding unacceptable losses.

Taking the military lessons described above, I would have thought that a better option to resolve the problem faced by the Education Ministry in the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English is not to rescind the policy, but to adopt a two prong solution i.e. to continue with the current policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English, and simultaneously impose the policy of teaching English at pre-school. This option is much unlike what the government has adopted i.e. rescinding one existing policy and introducing another policy that is totally different and with uncertain results. This is quite similar to term ‘reinforcing failure’ that I have stated above, that is likely to end in disaster.

I know that to adopt the option that I had described is not an easy one because it requires a lot of English teaching staffs to be trained. But what we shall get in the end are more and better trained teachers that a proficient in English.

And is this not what the government wants to achieve at the end of the day? More English speaking teachers.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

VOICES OF DISAGREEMENT GET LOUDER BY THE DAY

I am glad that Tun Dr. Mahathir has come out openly to voice his disagreement regarding the decision by the government to revert to Bahasa Malaysia in the teaching of Mathematics and Science in schools beginning 2012. He had even “called on the people to make their unhappiness known to the government”. He also reasoned out why he had introduced English for the two subjects, which he did a year before he left office, and that his proposal was agreed upon by the UMNO Supreme Council then. He further said that “it is not about learning English. It is not about learning Malay. It is simply an acknowledgement of the fact that today's knowledge come to us in the English language”.

Tun Dr. Mahathir's reasoning is plain and simple to have solicited the approval of the UMNO Supreme Council then, and is even well understood by the people today. And why now, with a change in PM does the government think that the proposal has failed. It is unfortunate that PM Najib and DPM Muhyiddin are not medical doctors. Otherwise, they would have offered a different prescription to cure the decease that is infecting the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English. Tun Dr. Mahathir is fortunate to have a wife who is also a medical doctor in whom he could confer for a second medical opinion.

Like all medical doctors, they will not prescribe any medication until they have thoroughly examined the patient, and having satisfied himself. Sometimes they would seek an second opinion from another doctor, and that was exactly what had happened to me, when the doctor suspected that there was something amiss with my heart when I underwent a stress test. Even the second doctor that examined me later was thorough in examining me, before a final decision to perform an angioplasty on me.

I suppose, the government did not practice what good doctors would do to patients before prescribing a medication, and for this the government is now confronted with the problem of trying to justify their decision. This could have been avoided if the proposal was widely discussed right down to the parents who have every right to know everything that will affect their child. It is not merely for politicians and some civil servants in the comforts of the ministry to make a decision, or was it an idea to please some national laureate in Malay poetry or a Malay linguist?

This issue, I believe will not just fade away that easily, because the voices of the people are getting louder and bolder as the day passes.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

MESSING UP OUR FUTURE GENERATION

I just cannot believe that some high level politicians can be so inward looking. And I am referring to the Deputy Education Minister when he said that “the government would spend RM5 billion in its effort to improve the teaching and learning of English in schools”, and in the next breath he says that “ the government would save RM40 million a year from 2012 when the teaching of Mathematics and Science is carried out in Bahasa Malaysia”. What sort of an argument is this, coming from a supposedly learned Deputy Minister.

Can someone notice the contradiction in the two statements above? On the one hand the government would spends RM5 billion (note the amount), and on the other hand the government would save RM40 million (million and not billion). Do we see any sense and logic in the Deputy Minister's statement? Please compare the amount spend against the amount saved. What do we get in the end; a huge drain in government spending against a meagre saving, just to improve the proficiency of English in schools.

Why can't that RM5 billion (if indeed the government has the funds) be used to continue the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English, and at the same time to continue improving the proficiency of English in teachers? What we will achieve in the end are students and teachers that will be proficient in English. Isn't this what our education system wants to achieve.........students and teachers that are English proficient?

And looking at the comments and responses received from the general public over this issue, a large majority is against the abolition of English in Mathematics and Science in schools. There was one particular blogger who even vowed that he and his wife will not vote for the BN in the next general elections because of the failure of the government to seek the views of parents first. And even our former PM Tun Dr. Mahathir is against the abolition of English, and the early results of the survey in his blog indicates a high disapproval rating of the government decision.

What does all this mean? To the ordinary people, it shows that the decision of the government is one that appears not to have taken the peoples views into account. I now tend to believe that even the teachers and academicians may not have been consulted. Any discussions may have been within the walls of the Education Ministry only, and for the government to say that its decision is one that is good for the future of our children, and the nation is a blatant lie.

There goes the 1 Malaysia slogan.........Rakyat di dahulukan, pencapaian di utamakan. I hope this slogan is correct.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

WHY THE CHANGE FROM ENGLISH TO BAHASA MALAYSIA?

What is wrong in using English for mathematics and science, and how sure is the government that by reverting to Bahasa Malaysia the students are expected to perform better in the two subjects.

I am in total disagreement with the decision to revert to Bahasa Malaysia, and I view it as a regression in our attempt to bring our future generation to greater heights in mastering both the subjects, as well as the English language. The only words to describe my disagreement is for me to say that the government is making a mess of our future generation. I just do not know what will become of my grandchildren who are now confused, and does the government really care? I know they don't because they can afford to send their children and grandchildren to be schooled overseas. I certainly cannot afford to give my grandchildren such luxury.

If the reason to revert back to Bahasa Malaysia is because the students, especially those in rural school, have performed poorly in the two subjects, then do not blame the students for their failures; blame the government for this because the government did not provided enough English training to the teachers. Haven't the Education Ministry heard the rumblings among some teachers of their concern in teaching the two subjects in English? Or was the Education Ministry merely thinking of making a test case out of these affected students?

Now the government has said that they will take all necessary steps to prepare teachers to be proficient in English, and increasing the time allocated to the teaching of English. There is also a proposal for the importation English teachers. This sounds like the time that I first started schooling, where some of the teachers were foreigners, especially the English teachers who were reportedly from Ceylon. And by increasing the period for English lessons, this will perforce increase the schooling hours. Or is the Education Ministry thinking of sacrificing some other not-so-important subjects, and what can these subjects be?

I am rather skeptical of the proposal brought forth by the government over this matter, because changes are seen to be made, simply because there is a change of a Minister. I do not know what actually goes on prior to a change being made, but if the decision is based on a political expediency, one can rest be assured that the decision is doomed to failure.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION