The public forum on ‘A Discourse on Malaysian Education Policies: Science and Maths in English as an Option’ at the Wawasan Open University (WOU) main campus on January 7th agreed that English must be an option in the teaching of the two subjects, along with Bahasa Malaysia and the vernacular languages.

The forum attended by over 200 people was organised by Penang Gerakan, WOU and the Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) to seek public support for the teaching and learning of Science and Maths in English (PPSMI). It is in response to the Education Minister’s announcement last year on the government’s reversal of the PPSMI policy implemented in 2003 by then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed. As a result of this reversal, all schools will after 2012 teach the two subjects only in Bahasa Malaysia or in the mother tongue languages.

The four panel speakers at the forum were PAGE chairperson Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, WOU’s School of Education, Languages and Communications dean Prof Dr Malachi Edwin Vethamani, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers northern branch chairman Dato’ O K Lee, and Vice President, Asia Pacific Human Resources in Agilent Technologies, Datin Rohana Weiler. The session was moderated by WOU’s School of Foundation and Liberal Studies senior lecturer Dr S Nagarajan.

The outcome of this forum – plus two more forums in Melaka and Klang Valley – will be incorporated into a memorandum by PAGE to be handed to the Prime Minister on January 19th while the Cabinet is in session.

Noor Azimah called for the language of choice to teach Science and Maths to be left to the individual schools depending on their strengths, as this will allow parents to send their children to schools that teach the subjects in the language they prefer.

Rohana said that the workforce that comes out of the Malaysian education policy must know how to carry out research and development and build the future growth of companies in Malaysia. She said technology changes very fast and so companies often send their employees for training, adding, “We should not get to the point of having to give English lessons as well to the graduates who join.”

O K Lee said many university graduates who come for interview are not good in the English language. He said the Internet is a powerful source of information for science and technology, and Malaysia does not yet have the resources to translate these into Malay.

Prof Malachi said using English to teach Science and Maths will give more access to knowledge. On the question of countries like Korea, Japan and Germany not having English as their first language, he replied, “The key factor is accessibility to knowledge as there is a strong industry of excellent translation in these countries.”

A teacher in the audience representing a primary school in Penang said that 80% of the pupils surveyed in her school wanted science and maths to be taught in English.

Penang Gerakan chairman Dato’ Dr Teng Hock Nan agreed that children must have the option to learn the two subjects in English. He suggested that PAGE should include some solutions to the problems that the school children might face under PPSMI in their memorandum so that the policy makers are more ready to listen to their input.

by Editorial Desk
gerakan4u.com