2009/11/25
IBRAHIM ZAKARIA, Kuantan
AFTER reading what members of parent-teacher associations had to say about doingaway with PPSMI (“Can we have Science and Maths in English in some schools?”— N S T, Nov 8), I’m compelled to write this letter to articulate the feelings of my family, friends, relatives andmyself regarding the decision to revert to teaching Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia from as early as next year.
Whether we like it or not, English is the lingua franca of the world. Most parents want their children to master the language so that they will be better equipped to find a job or to pursue tertiary education.
For these reasons, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had the courage to correct shortcomings in our educational policy by reintroducing English as the medium of instruction in Science and Mathematics.
Realising that a generation of Malaysians had paid for the flaws in our education policy, Dr Mahathir tried to break the unfortunate chain of inadequacy in English among our students and graduates. Most Malaysians look upon this change of policy as his best departing gift to our nation.
When it was announced this year that the government had decided to revert to teaching Science and Maths in Bahasa Malaysia, our hearts sank.
If 95 per cent of the population in SK Perumahan Tampoi are Malays and the parents have no problem with their children learning Science and Maths in English, as revealed by Mohd Hambali Munadi, the chairman of a PTA in Johor in the same letter, one wonders why we would want to revert to teaching Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia.
I pray that the government will allow the two subjects to be taught in English in schools where a majority of the parents want them to be taught in that language.
UNTUK ANAK-ANAK MALAYSIA
FOR OUR CHILDREN
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1 comment:
I like and support what you say, more so because you are a Malay. I was heart broken when the Education Minister make the anouncement to discontinue PPSMI as my two children are affected. In the midst to please the Malay nationalist and the vernacular school people, people like us, the Chinese & Indians who send their kids to national schools, are ignored. It makes me more sad when I thinked the move was politically driven. Our kids' education is being used as a political tool. The kids in national schools are willing to bite the bullet if PPSMI is difficult for them. Nothing is easy in the begining. I also started schooling without knowing a word of English!
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