Sunday, May 31, 2009

Never Turn Back

Hello there.

LAST Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin met seven Chinese educationist groups who want the teaching of Mathematics and Science in Chinese primary schools to be reverted to the Chinese language.

The Chinese educationists have been rather unhappy since the English for Teaching Mathematics and Science (ETeMS) policy was first announced by the former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on May 10, 2002.

To them, there is no valid reason for the implementation of ETeMS to be extended to Chinese primary schools when the first switch from teaching Maths and Science in English to Bahasa Malaysia in the late 1970s involved only the national schools.

The Chinese educationists have many reasons for opposing ETeMS, but to my mind, their main concern is actually this.

If the two subjects are taught in English, that spells the beginning of the end of Chinese primary schools in this country. 
Apart from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Malaysia is the only other country which has the Chinese language as the medium of instruction in Chinese primary schools.

They suspect that if the ETeMS policy is implemented, there would come a day when non-Chinese-educated teachers will be roped in to teach Maths and Science in English in Chinese primary schools, thereby changing the character of the schools.

To them, this is an insidious attempt to do away with vernacular Chinese schools in this country. 

To a certain extent, such a fear is not unfounded. Before independence, the British administrators in the 1951 Barnes Report had wanted to abolish the vernacular schools. 

Then the 1960 Abdul Rahman Talib Report also brought about the new Education Act 1961, which contained the infamous Section 21(2) (now repealed) empowering the minister to convert any national-type vernacular primary school to a national primary school.

To the Chinese, education is the issue most dear to their hearts. 

It often evokes strong emotion and passion in the Chinese community, and it is said that any political party which attends to the educational needs of the community will win their hearts and minds. 

Likewise, any Chinese- based political party which advocates the closure of these schools will only be committing political suicide.

Today, more than 90 per cent of Chinese pupils study in Chinese primary schools, and close to 90 per cent of them also move on to national secondary schools after their primary education. 

But what the educationists and Chinese-based political parties have failed to address since independence is the high drop-out rate among Chinese youths who are unable to cope with the switch to English or Bahasa Malaysia at the national secondary schools.

Hundreds of thousands of them also cease having further education after Form 5 due to their poor academic performance. 

As a result, many of them end up with blue-collar jobs.

While it is novel that Chinese children in this country get to learn about their heritage and culture at primary school, it is really a sad thing if later thousands of them are unable to cope with their studies at the national secondary schools.

They must realise that having a good command of the Chinese language is not sufficient in this globalised world. This is evident in China these days where millions of youths are trying all sorts of ways to learn and become proficient in the English language.

In my opinion, learning Maths and Science in English in primary schools will help those pupils who later switch to national secondary schools.

It also increases their proficiency in English because, for example, if the students end up in the Science stream, they will be studying most of the subjects in English as all the Maths and Science subjects -- General Maths, Additional Maths, General Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology are taught in English.

This is an excerpt of an article written by Roger Tan, a senior lawyer. I think everyone should read this, especially the Malays. What Mr. Tan said is true. Why revert? 

1 comment:

Viola Ng said...

wow..buddy.u seriously gonna be the next prime minister like what we always crapped before.
u r sooo political.
anyway..good for u. i agree with mr tan too. i think this article sounds freakingly true. gotta read more of it..keep on updating