PAGE Response to NST Letter to Editor

28 October 2009

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to explain our cause and surveys conducted at the respective schools (Education: That PPSMI survey is not good enough 2009/10/27).

The Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister on behalf of schools that desire to be given the option to maintain the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) and a proposal for these schools to be re-categorised as SK/SMK (SMI).

The Prime Minister had said on 13 July 2009 that the government is open-minded about the proposal for some schools to be allowed to continue with PPSMI because the government respects the voice of the people. It was also in line with the government call for People First, Performance Now. Parents are people and many schools have performed with PPSMI.

Since the decision to abolish PPSMI was made on 8 July 2009 and in spite of the offer from the Minister of Education on 9 August 2009 for PTAs to send its memorandum to him, principals have been instructed to prohibit PTAs to convene EGMs to discuss this issue, which we see as an injustice to parents as well as teachers.

The Education Act 1996 allows “parents and teachers to exchange ideas on educational matters”. The Education Act further “requires the government to take into consideration the wishes of parents in wanting to educate their children as long as its expenditure involved is not excessive”. It goes on to say that the “primary objective of education is to gain knowledge having to keep abreast with the effects of the fast-paced development of science, technology and information”.

Had the PTAs been allowed to convene EGMs, the voting process would have been more accurate and reliable, and more schools would have successfully carried out their EGMs without any dissention from any party.

Consequently, parents of these seven schools either conducted voting on this matter via distributing voting slips through the students for their parents or parents were given voting slips as they came to pick their children from school.

We, too, would like more schools to convene EGMs but PTAs have now become afraid of its consequences. We have written several times to meet with the Minister of Education and seek his wisdom but no avail. We wish to assure that our actions were not hurried but instead thought through thoroughly.

In addition, the Federal Constitution of Malaysia states that “the national language shall be the Malay language provided that no person shall be prohibited or prevented from using, teaching or learning, any other language”. With regards to PPSMI, the national language, Malay, we stress yet again, not only remains the prime medium of instruction in national schools but also continues to maintain a majority number of subject hours at primary level (59%) and secondary level (53%) including the science stream.

PPSMI is not a question of language but the gaining of knowledge in science and mathematics in its ‘lingua franca’ which is English. Unfortunately, we cannot yet compare ourselves to France, Germany and Japan as they are the creators of technology from a hundred years ago and we are but merely consequential users and assemblers of it. We are also a young and small population lacking the expertise to translate specialized scientific and mathematical terms.

We are now no more in the industrial age but instead in the era of information and technology where vast knowledge (99%) in science and mathematics is found in English on the internet.

The future generation cannot just rely on only Malay, Mandarin or Tamil in this global day and age. We need to equip ourselves with more than just that, much more.

Lastly, parents look forward to the day when education is no more politicised.

PAGE MALAYSIA

UNTUK ANAK-ANAK MALAYSIA
FOR OUR CHILDREN