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Malaysia drops English used to teach math, science
Sean Yoong , The Associated Press , Kuala Lumpur | Wed, 07/08/2009 10:59 PM | World
Malaysia announced Wednesday it will abandon the use of English to teach math and science, bowing to protesters who demanded more use of the national Malay language.
Malay will be reinstated in state-funded schools starting in 2012 because teaching in English caused academic results in those subjects to slip, Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.
The news comes after months of high-profile demonstrations by politicians and linguists, especially from the ethnic Malay majority, who say a six-year-old policy of using English undermines their struggle to modernize their mother tongue.
English was once the medium of instruction in most schools in Malaysia, a former British colony. Nationalist leaders switched to Malay less than two decades after independence in 1957.
In 2003, realizing that poor English skills hurt graduates competing for work against people from other countries, especially neighboring Singapore, ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad launched a program to resume teaching math and science in English. Most other subjects are taught in Malay.
Malay activists began to protest the policy after the government recently said it was reviewing the program's success.
Students in rural districts, who are mainly Malay, suffered the most because their English proficiency was low, Muhyiddin said. He said authorities would try to improve students' English-language skills by recruiting more teachers and offering more language classes.
Some in the large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities also oppose the use of English, insisting that math and science should be taught in their mother tongues, Mandarin and Tamil.
Muhyiddin said schools for ethnic minorities that teach most subjects in those two languages will also scrap the use of English for math and science starting in 2012.
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Chan Kok Ming (not verified) — Wed, 07/15/2009 - 9:40pm
I think you have totally wrong Idea of what is going on here. Everybody knows that English is the major lingua franca as you claim. And because of that, under new policy, additional English language had been introduce i.e: English Literature and Communication. Not forget to mention the current hours of English Language thought in school will be increase to 2 hours a day and five times a week & I think that is sufficient for a student.
Student who are currently studying Math & Science in English doesn't have to worry as the policy is only apply to new student.
You said, why on earth that we need to learn Tamil/Mandarin. Lol. No one would ask you to learn Mandarin/Tamil. It is for Indian and Chinese student in Malaysia.Well at least the government did something for those minorities in preserving their own cultures / language. Not like some Chinese from other places who can't even speak in their own language.
Well, It is good to get a bigger picture, But it is better if those picture that you get no matter big or small, to be bright & clear.
Iwan2 (not verified) — Wed, 07/15/2009 - 8:37am
I agree please stop the english courses in the schools because this will naturally limit the large amount of malaysian immigrants that are currently applying for australian citizenship. Also it will help the economies of countries like philippines, Timor Leste, Thailand (english in class) and empower their poeple to apply their expertise in overseas based well paid employment.
I gather there will be more malaysian maids heading to Saudi in 2012
Real smart
Dr Khadaroo (not verified) — Wed, 07/15/2009 - 4:28am
Pity the school leavers who come here in the UK to study Engineering, Science, Medicine, etc in English.
Well of course, this won't be a problem for Malaysian nationalists wishing to learn in local univeristies and living and thinking locally. It would be like living under a nut shell. Ignore globalisation and the information age and focus on national competitiveness ???
The English language entry requirement (e.g. IELTS or TOEFL) is a big hassle for international students.
We ensure that only those who speak, understand and write good English gets entry and earn a degree taught via the English medium. Tough luck to those who are used to studying Matematik and Sains!
Anonymous (not verified) — Tue, 07/14/2009 - 10:15am
Zulkifli, you are a perfect example of how backward Malaysians are in the use and understanding of English.
Dear God.
The future of my country. I dare not even permit myself to imagine it.
Sara Jade (not verified) — Tue, 07/14/2009 - 10:00am
This is so far the most stupid decision the Malaysian government has made concerning the use of English in education. No matter how you compare Malay to the use of English, English still remains to be the major lingua franca of the world. From what I know, implicating the use of English in the school system was a brilliant idea and it gave the people an actual chance of competing with other countries. Not to mention, students are going to have a hard time adapting to things in Malay again, what with learning their subjects in English for half their lives. Did they ever put any thought into how the students would feel, having to switch to Malay after having an understanding of mathematics and science in complete English. Really, this was honestly a stupid decision.
And about the Mandarin and Tamil, why on Earth would we need to learn the subjects in languages that are rarely used in the business world?? I'm not insulting them or anything, i just think that maybe some people are just not seeing the bigger picture.
Azlesham (not verified) — Tue, 07/14/2009 - 3:39am
Well... As Malaysian, most of us realized the important of English language in developing our country. At first I personally do not agree of the idea of dropping the english to be tought in Science and math. But again, when we think back, our national language (Bahasa Malaysia) had been systematically marginalized for the past few years. Have to remember that, those who oppose the idea of teaching Math & Science in English were not only Malays, infact there were quite numbers of Chinese and Indian joint the movement. Not forget to mentioned some ethnic Chinese and Indian especially those residing in the city, failed to communicate in their own mother tounge.
So what the goverment did was right. So instead of losing new generation who cant even speak their own language, the new policy of teaching Math & science in National language (for National School) & in Mandarin/Tamil (in vernacular school)was a good move. We must remember, under new Education revamp that being announce by the PM, new english subject will be introduce. This will include English Literature, Comunication as an additional of English Grammar that currently been tought.
Btw, Yes, many Chinese in China learn english, because they need to. And they dont learn Bahasa because they dont need to.. Same like here in Indonsia, Why all Indonesian learn English, why not Chinese?
Helena van der Winden (not verified) — Sun, 07/12/2009 - 3:25pm
I agree with Phillip's comment. Some people say that you're ignorant and poorly educated if you don't speak English. However, many English speaking people from English speaking countries are ignorant too, particularly when they are abroad.
Malaysian & Indonesian people have to learn from the French. They manage to make their language survive in the world where English language highly dominates.
For me personally, the solution is to make our children bilingual or even trilingual. Learning a language is a step to understand a culture. My children learn Dutch, English, French and Bahasa Indonesia (since we live in Indonesia).
Phillip M (not verified) — Sat, 07/11/2009 - 4:27pm
In 100 years time, there will probably be just a few places on Earth where natural wild forest survives, perhaps in Tasmania, Indonesia, the Amazon, the Congo if we are lucky, if the loggers leave anything alone. Those pockets will be precious beyond price.
Possibly also there will be only a handful of dominant mega-languages surviving (in all sorts of dialects) and thousands of today's little local languages wil be gone. Those that survive will be precious beyond price. All that wisdom, experience, beauty and value that are represented by linguistic networks in living brains and interacting communities will be lost ... gone .. gone .. to the archives at best.
Against stupidity, (of money, monoculture and monolingualism) the gods themselves struggle in vain.
[Search for "Never mind whales, save the languages"]
Jamesltl (not verified) — Sat, 07/11/2009 - 9:30am
so the parliament only think about those Malays in district area?
what about those Chinese in the same area that struggle in both Malay and English? and when the young generation who looking for jobs in other country? speak malays? what a rubbish..
Riss (not verified) — Fri, 07/10/2009 - 5:22pm
this is just ridicilous if one of the developing countries like Indonesia or Malaysia banning english applied in their school why??? as we know, nowaday english is very important to us as english language is as international language. English is the gate of world so we can go to every countries we wish for instance, if we would like to get a job overseas such as Australia, USA or any country which english is as priority. it is the only way of capability that we should bring to them. So, lets go forward dont waste of your time in learning of English.