KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — A visibly angry Maimunah Hamid shook her head in desperation as Education Ministry officials struggled to explain to angry parents gathered at a parent-teachers meeting at a national school in the city last week. "I have had enough, I am moving my daughter to an international school," said Maimunah, an accountant with Maybank, Malaysia's biggest bank. "I am sick of this flip-flop policy, why can't you all make up your mind?" Most of the 120 parents agreed with Maimunah, 46, a mother of two daughters aged nine and 12.
"Make up you mind please — English or Malay. Don't torture the children," said another parent Kanagaratnam Vellupillai, 39. "This issue has been going on for years and years." In fact the issue — English or Malay as a medium of instruction — has been hotly debated and remains unresolved since the British colonialists left in 1957.
After acrimonious debate the matter was settled in 1967 that Malay would be the medium of instruction in all national schools, but that Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools could continue teaching in a mixture of Malay and their own mother tongues.
However, in a decision in 2002, which was widely opposed by parents, officials, opposition lawmakers and even civil servants, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ordered the return of English on the grounds that national education in Malay narrowed student minds, retarded economic growth and that if continued, Malaysia's competitiveness would collapse against Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
The return of English was widely supported by middle-class parents such as Maimunah and Kanagaratnam, who were already westernised and inclined to want an open, English-based education for their children.
However Malay nationalists, Chinese educationists and Tamil parents, who wanted Tamil as medium of instruction for Tamils, strongly objected to Dr Mahathir's desire to bring back English.
The veteran politician offered a compromise — only science and maths would be taught in English. All other subjects would be in Malay and vernacular languages.
That decision has been hotly debated ever since and the latest round erupted last month with academics, teachers and parents hotly divided over whether to continue Dr Mahathir's policy or revert to teaching all subjects in Malay.
The matter remains an emotive issue in this multi-ethnic society divided by race, religion and now mother tongue education.
Five years after Dr Mahathir retired in 2003 his successor, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, still finds it difficult to reverse the "science and maths in English" policy now widely described as a "silly legacy".
At the time it was introduced, the move was strongly opposed by parents, educators and teachers, but Dr Mahathir pressed on. Opposition continued over the years and has reached a peak in recent weeks with top educators openly arguing that the five-year-old policy has seriously damaged students' grasp of not only English but also science and maths.
"You cannot study a language by studying maths and science in that language," said Ungku Aziz, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Malaya.
"The tragedy of our time is that students have no idea what is grammar and syntax, they are not proficient in English," he told an education forum this month, adding his weight to chorus of demands to end the policy.
"English or any language should be learnt as a language on its own right."
National Union of Heads of Schools president Pang Chong Leong agreed with the argument against using English as the medium of instruction for science and maths.
"If the intention is to improve the pupils' English, then they should start with the arts subjects, such as moral studies, and also increase the number of English periods," he said at an education forum last week.
"Science involves a lot of thinking while maths does not use too much language and vocabulary. It goes against the principles of education and does not achieve any objective."
Dr Mahathir reasoned though that by teaching the two subjects in English students would not only master the language but also science and maths to make the economy technology-driven, and implemented the policy against strong opposition in 2003, months before he retired after 22 years as prime minister.
Neither aims, however, have been achieved, experts argue.
They say English proficiency fell because less time was devoted to it in language study, while grasp of science and maths also suffered after the sudden switch from Malay.
English originally was taught five times a week, 45-minutes a session in primary schools, but that time was reduced to once a week under the new policy. The saved hours were used to study science and maths in English, leaving teachers and students in the lurch.
The government pressed ahead, spending billions changing school textbooks to English, training teachers to work in the language and at one time even importing scores of teachers from England to fill a shortfall.
Over the years several government "review committees" have studied the issue and recommended to end the policy, but Dr Mahathir's influence in the political arena was so great that a final decision was always postponed.
Another reason for the indecisiveness is that long-time education minister Datuk Hishamuddin Hussein is a Mahathir loyalist and unwilling to embarrass the former prime minister by ending the policy.
However, at a teachers' meeting early this month, Hishamuddin promised the government would make a firm decision — abandon English for Malay or continue the policy — by year end.
Some parents, such as Maimunah, are not prepared to wait for the government to decide.
"I want my daughters to have a wholesome, internationally recognised education so they can work and live anywhere in the world," she said.
"Later this year I am pulling them from the national school and registering them in an international one that follows the English semester system. It's expensive but worth it."
However, parents like Kanagaratnam, a City hall bus driver, cannot afford expensive private education. "English is a must for world commerce and the future. We must have a strong grounding in English," he said.
"I hope the government keeps instruction in English just for science and mathematics. We don't want out children to return to Malay and play catch up all over again."
The government appears reluctant to reverse the policy five years after spending so much money on textbooks and retraining teachers to switch science and maths from Malay to English.
"We have already lost one generation switching from English to Malay. By reversing I fear we will lose another," said retired teacher Kathy Fong in a letter to the New Straits Times daily last week.
- South China Morning Post
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