PPSMI: English now a mother tongue

2009/11/30

E.L.Melbourne, Australia

I REFER to the letter "PPSMI waivers must not be granted" (NST, Nov 26) from Sa'ari Hasan of Ayer Keroh, Malacca. The writer seems to assume that all Malaysian children are brought up in households where only Malay, Chinese or Tamil is spoken. This is a narrow viewpoint.

It cannot be denied that many Malaysian children nowadays are born into English-speaking households and are exposed to television and the Internet where most of the information, cartoons, movies, etc are in English.

They also have access to major bookstore chains offering a myriad books and magazines in English.

To these children, English is not a foreign language. They have the right to learn in the language they are most comfortable with, that is English.

Parents, too, must be given the right to decide what language they want their children to be educated in, and they have voiced this out in parent-teacher association meetings and in the press. We have seen that in some schools, an overwhelming majority of parents want the teaching of Mathematics and Science to remain in English.

How is it that in the 1950s and 1960s, our parents who studied in English-medium-schools had no problem coping with their studies? The entire syllabus then was in English. Moreover, it was a lot less likely that the older generation came from English-speaking households. I have aunts and uncles who could not speak a word of English when they entered Standard One. Yet now, they are all graduates and communicate in perfect English.

It is obvious that the command of English and overall quality of the older generation, who had the privilege of studying in English-medium schools, are much better than among the thousands of graduates being churned out of local universities today.

Having worked in the human resources division of a large company before, I have gone through thousands of job applications. Most of the applications from local graduates ended up in the rubbish bin because their English was appalling.

Bahasa Malaysia nationalists need to rid themselves of the attitude that English is a legacy of British colonialism. Communicating in English is not comparable to donning "bowler hats, tailcoats and brollies", as the writer puts it. No one is belittling Bahasa Malaysia.

Please be sensible and do not let blind nationalism impede the country's progress in this era of globalisation.

The education minister had said more emphasis would be placed on the teaching of English in schools. But let's not kid ourselves. Will this really improve students' command of English? I seriously doubt it.

As it is, one does not even have to pass English to get a Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia certificate.

Therefore, do you think teachers will take it seriously, let alone students? More likely the students will fool around during the English periods or teachers will tell them to "buat kerja sendiri" (do your own work).

Rural students already have such limited exposure to English as they do not have as much access to things like computers or satellite television. Abolishing PPSMI means that they will have even fewer opportunities to improve their English language skills.

They will definitely end up being "locked up in a world of suffocating ignorance".

UNTUK ANAK-ANAK MALAYSIA
FOR OUR CHILDREN