PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, July 8 - Malaysia is to abandon teaching maths and science in English, saying that far too many children from poor rural areas were being failed by the programme.
The decision to start phasing out English medium teaching from 2012 has been backed by the government and Malaysia's main opposition parties, despite concerns that using the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, will undermine competitiveness.
Malaysia has said recently that it wants to attract more high-value investment in areas like banking and finance, industries that are global and typically demand good English. [ID:nKLR467124]
Instead of teaching maths and science in English, a policy started in 2003, the government will double the time spent on English lessons for primary children and increase that for secondary school children by half.
It said it would hire an additional 14,000 teachers to teach English as a language.
"I would not say it was a complete failure, but it did not achieve what it was supposed to achieve," Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told a news conference on Wednesday.
A recent report from Morgan Stanley showed that Malaysia's tertiary enrolment and completion ratios were six and seven percentage points behind the average countries with a similar level of income per capita.
That leaves it at a disadvantage as it seeks to tap into foreign investment which is increasingly using countries like China and Vietnam which have larger domestic markets and bigger reservoirs of cheap labour.
Neighbouring Singapore split from becoming part of Malaysia and retained English as the primary language of education. The city state has emerged as one of the richest nations on earth with a per capita income of $51,649 in 2008 while Malaysia's is $14,225, based on 2008 data.
Critics said that the changes to use Bahasa Malaysia would not achieve the desired effect of enfranchising the rural poor or of boosting English language skills and said the move was largely political, aimed at appeasing the Malay majority.
"What has not occurred to the authorities is that the education system requires very competent teachers," said Khoo Kay Kim, emeritus professor at the University of Malaya's history department, adding that politicians were driving the change due to their personal agenda.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was educated in an English-medium school in Kuala Lumpur and later in a private school in England, while opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was educated at the elite English-speaking Malay College.
Khoo also warned that the move could increase divisions along racial lines in this country of 27 million people where 55 percent are ethnic Malays and there are sizeable ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
"There is an emphasis on separation, not integration, today," Khoo said.
--Reuters
Neighbouring Singapore split from becoming part of Malaysia and retained English as the primary language of education. The city state has emerged as one of the richest nations on earth with a per capita income of $51,649 in 2008 while Malaysia's is $14,225, based on 2008 data.
But the spoken language became corrupted with english terms.
Singlish too.
Originally posted by Ah Chia:
But the spoken language became corrupted with english terms.
Singlish too.
Our english may be corrupted but we can still use good english when the need arises which is what makes us alot more competitive than m'sia.
Singlish has become our culture and something uniquely singapore just like other countries have their own slangs and terms, singlish is not too much different from that.
If U have a poor command of language, how are you going to 'sell snow to eskimos' ???
Originally posted by gd4u:If U have a poor command of language, how are you going to 'sell snow to eskimos' ???
Only malaysia's dumb leaders can come up with such dumb ideas
it really wasnt a feasible plan from the start...the schools don't even teach english properly , passing english is not even a requirement at their SPM and they expect to use it as a medium for understanding concepts?
i also dont get it why the education leaders do not just want to use Malay as a medium for teaching...it is firstly their national language, and also, if other people from china or europe or the middle east can teach math and science in the native language and be progressive at the same time, why can't the malay language make it too?
well, it solves the FT problem, doesn't it??
actually it reverts to malay in the national type schools and chinese and tamil in the chinese and indian schools.
Oh.. now our kids are educated according to policies that favour the lowest BASIC common denomintor?
BRAVO BRAVO !!! *claps his hands*
Najib n his 1Malaysia.. haha
Thats why we study overseas. But i pity those that study overseas, come back, to realise that, they shouldnt even bother coming back at all unless thier parents are super big shot/politicians/big big big businessman, they will be no better then those that only finish diploma at a local college.
ha ha not sure if there are enough malay words for all Science terminology.
Originally posted by dkcx:Our english may be corrupted but we can still use good english when the need arises which is what makes us alot more competitive than m'sia.
Singlish has become our culture and something uniquely singapore just like other countries have their own slangs and terms, singlish is not too much different from that.
You say wat cock?
Originally posted by gd4u:If U have a poor command of language, how are you going to 'sell snow to eskimos' ???
So how did we buy eskimo pie from them?
Originally posted by Arapahoe:ha ha not sure if there are enough malay words for all Science terminology.
that is when the words Tak Tau come into play.
Originally posted by Short Ninja:
You say wat cock?
Ur cock lo, cannot identify it?
Tak boleh lah.. how can like this.
Like that they how to understand english when they go to uni ah
Why U.S and British can speak broken English and we can't? Don't need to impress anyone lah. They come to singapore, they learn our way. We go their country, we learn their ways. Then its fair.
We go their country, we learn their ways. Then its fair.
Problem is that english is an alien language here.
ppl will have a hard time lah, if they go other country to study.. working english is more than basic english leh...
Originally posted by Eddyvlad:Why U.S and British can speak broken English and we can't? Don't need to impress anyone lah. They come to singapore, they learn our way. We go their country, we learn their ways. Then its fair.
Very Corright!
As long as our neighbour gets drowned in corruption and poor education, it's to the benefit of Singapore.
like this they won't improve..
Originally posted by dotaro:As long as our neighbour gets drowned in corruption and poor education, it's to the benefit of Singapore.
A country doesnt gain much and stand to lose even more if that were to happen.Look eslewhere around the World for a better picture.