M'sian policy change in teaching Maths & Science

[NOV]

The First Bungle of the 1st 100 days in office!


Jaga Bahasa Biar Jahanam Bangsa
By Syed Akbar Ali



In one of my Four Wheel Drive trips into the jungle some years ago, we stopped at a place called Cheneh in Terengganu. I remember a makcik at a roadside stall made some nice ayam goreng. My good friend Juhaidi was with me and also my two boys.

Cheneh was (and maybe still is) a typical rural backwater. The folks did not seem to know if they were coming or they were going... There was Astro but I think the favorite show was 'Tom Tom Bak'. But I did recall saying aloud that someday I hope that the folks in Cheneh would watch CNN, BBC and CBS and that we could just drive up and ask the makcik in Cheneh 'Whats on CNN today?' But I think that's not going to happen at all.

Tuan Tuan dan Puan Puan, our Prime Minister Dato Najib has made his first bungle - and within the first 100 days too. No Sirs, it is a major bungle. You have bungled big time.

Lets manage this "crisis in the making" now. First of all please stop from saying anything more about the switch from English to Malay. The more things you say, the more "face saving" devices you will need for you to swallow your pride before you can undo this mistake. But this mistake must be undone.

I just happened to be with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad yesterday Thursday July 9th 09 slightly after noon when the news came in that the Cabinet had decided to flip flop over the language issue.

Firstly Tun Dr Mahathir raised a simple but valid point. The main reason quoted by Tan Sri Muhyuddin to favor the switch to Malay was that the rural Malay kids were doing poorly in Maths and Science (which are taught in English) compared to the urban kids. But what about exam scores for the rural kids in all other subjects which are taught in the Malay language? Dr Mahathir said no one showed him the statistics for that. Why?

If you say that English is the reason why the rural kids are doing so poorly in Maths and Science, then by your logic the rural kids should be scoring the same as or better than the urban kids in other subjects that are taught in Malay? By your logic rural kids should be doing better than the urban kids in Sejarah, Geografi, Kemahiran Hidup, Bahasa Malaysia and other Malay language subjects.

But we know that rural kids generally score lower than urban kids in most subjects (except maybe Agama). And language has got nothing to do with it. Rural kids are usually found in lower income households, their parents are usually less educated, they have less achievement goals and so forth. That is why you call them 'children from rural areas'. They are poor people and they are underachievers.

So this comparison with rural kids and urban kids is not fully accurate (Tun Dr Mahathir used another word which I need not repeat here).

Let me give you some street feedback. At least one Internet based employment agency has instructions from its clients to completely ignore any job applicants who are graduates from UTM (University ITM). As we know UITM graduates are all Malays. They say the quality of the graduates is low and their English is bad.. They are unemployable. This is what I heard.

Another preference by another employer - a Multi National Corporation - in the job market is to take in job applicants who are graduates of IPTA (private universities) who have done twinning programs. This means their English is good and they are more marketable. Again this means Malays with poor English skills are not preferred, bottom of the line.

And here is some news from Cyberjaya. We opened up Cyberjaya and gave foreign investors much benefits and incentives to open business there. Among the foreign
investments in Cyberjaya are 'Call Centers'. Well some 'Call Centers' in Cyberjaya take in Indians as a first choice for employment. They feel that generally Indians
speak better English. Second choice are Chinese. Finally they will look at Malays as the last choice but rarely. Even with the emphasis on English the past six years, the Malays cannot speak enough English to get a job answering telephones in Call Centers in Cyberjaya. THIS IS PATHETIC!!!

We cannot shut them down or arrest them under the ISA for practising such discrimination. They come here for business. We must provide them the tools necessary to run their businesses well. We are not doing the job.

To Dato Najib and Tan Sri Muhyuddin Yassin, why are you doing this? Who agrees with you? Who are you afraid of? Takkan UMNO Johor is so powerful to frighten Muhyuddin?

Last nite I met a Deputy Minister and a well known "ultra Malay" ex-newspaper editor. The Deputy Minister said it was a bad decision to switch back to Malay. The 'ultra Malay' ex-editor was visibly upset and said "I have no comments. I don't want to say anything." I think he did not agree with the switch at all.

Another well known "ultra-ultra" Malay defender of all things Malay (if I just mention his job you will know who he is) said the switch to Malay was 'satu langkah ke belakang'.

A Tan Sri from Kelantan said in English "this is a giant leap backward for the Malays..."

In the present world, the English language is a 'life giving' language. The amount of new knowledge and new information that comes out in the English language is astounding. No one can translate all the new knowledge and information that comes out in English EACH and EVERY DAY. It is impossible.. We have to master this language. There is no other way.

Then we have the 'tidak masuk akal' ideas. Tan Sri Muhyuddin says after the switch back to Malay, he still wants to upgrade the teaching of English in the rural schools. He wants to employ about 1000 native English speakers to teach English in rural schools. By native speaker I do not know if he is referring to Mrs Naidu from Brickfields or if he wants to employ real Mat Sallehs from outside the country.

Mrs Naidu the retired English teacher will gladly teach English to our children for RM3000 per month. But we will have to pay the Mat Sallehs RM15,000 a month or more before they will come to work here.

But if that is a good idea then why not employ 1000 Mat Sallehs at RM15000 a month to teach Maths and Science in English in the rural schools?

Because according to Tan Sri Muhyuddin, it is not the school children in the rural schools who are to be faulted. The real culprits are the teachers. Muhyuddin let the cat out of the bag. Here is what Muhyuddin said (from the Press):

"It was based on empirical studies and other specialist reviews," he said. Based on studies conducted in 2008, he said, the ministry found that only a small percentage of teachers fully used English to teach the two subjects. "On average, the percentage of those using English during Mathematics and Science periods was around 53% to 58%," he said, adding that only a small number of teachers were proficient. Muhyiddin said studies carried out by local universities found that students' mastery level of English during the entire policy was around 3% while the level among rural students was low."

So don't push the blame on the rural students lah, Syewel!

It is the teachers who were malas to teach in English. And there are other reasons why some Malay teachers do not use English. Among them are religious reasons because some people believe that speaking English may lead to you 'jadi kristian'. FULAWEI! ADA BODOH MACAM INI PUN DLM KALANGAN GURU KITA KAH?



Even in the towns (including Kuala Lumpur ) it is also considered "showing off" if Malay people speak English. So there are other quite illogical reasons why Malay teachers are shy to speak and teach in English. Don't just blame it (and quite wrongly too) on the rural school children. That is not correct.

And even if what Tan Sri Muhyuddin is saying is indeed true, why burden the urban kids and dim their chances at a better future just because the rural kids are having problems with English?

Urban kids are usually the children of parents who are more educated, who work in offices, run businesses and generally earn a higher income and enjoy a better standard of living. The rural folks are usually much poorer than the urban folks.

That is why we have to make sure that the rural folks get the same or better opportunities to get out of the poverty cycle and move up in life so that they too can enjoy a standard of living like the urban people. A good education and the ability to converse in English is definitely one way up.

But what this policy reversal has done is to lower the entire national average. Instead of moving the rural people up the ladder, we are now moving moving the urban folks down to the level of the rural people. We are lowering the averages. Hang tak payah jadi pandai macam aku, biar aku jadi bodoh macam hang!

We are nailing the Malays inside the language cocoon. We are also creating a "non English understanding rural poor" versus an "English speaking urban elite" divide. The Malays who cannot speak English will be left further and further behind. BUT YOU THINK UMNO CARES FOR YOU ????

The English speaking urban folks (Malays, Chinese and Indians) will move light years ahead of the non English speaking folks. There will most definitely be an English speaking elite in the country. More problems will arise.

Then we have also allowed International Schools in the country to be opened to all Malaysians. We also have foreign universities like Nottingham and Monash. We are basically denying many Malays from qualifying to enter these universities and international schools. They can go to UITM and become more 'cocoon infested' and unemployable.

But very, very few kids make it to university or college in the first place. Only 2% to 3% of the population goes to university anyway. The large bulk of our young kids will become school leavers (SPM or PMR) with no employable skills, no knowledge of "life giving" English. Their future is doomed.

Akhir sekali saya nampak peluang hidup bagi budak Melayu dari kampong menjadi lagi tipis. Siapa yang ada tanah getah, mungkin akan kerja potong getah saja di kampong. Kalau tak ada tanah getah, depa akan berhijrah ke bandar dan pekan untuk mencari kerja sebagai office boy, messenger dan peon. TERIMA KASIH AJELAH KEPADA GOMEN NAJIS!!!

They may even think that office boy, messenger and peon are three different careers.

[app_engine]

Digression, somewhat related:

http://www.ptinews.com/news/245460_S...in-all-schools

Something that was kicked out of TN during 60's is trying to make a come back (though its imposition through out the country in various forms had not stopped, it wasn't in the schools at least)

[joe]

Something that was kicked out of TN during 60's is trying to make a come back

Never Mind ..We will kick out one more time.

[P_R]

Something that was kicked out of TN during 60's is trying to make a come back

Never Mind ..We will kick out one more time.

I am a little worried now because of the existing centre-state relationship.The ideological opposition that existed last time made the resistance successful.

What is annoying is Kapil Sibal suggesting we will finally reach a situation where Hindi would be the lingua franca of India. I can understand the previous generation people on the Hindi side, Gobind Ballab Pant, Ram Manohar Lohia and to some extent even Gandhi wanting the population to be weaned away from English (a colonial vestige etc.). Pant was beaten by English policemen which inflicted a permanent damage on his neck, which always shook slightly that for the rest of his life.

But so many years later, why will an articulate lawyer like Kapil Sibal want to 'eventually' do away with English. From what can his discomfort possibly stem ?

>dig>Relevant here is Ramachandra Guha's interesting article in the EPW about the Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual. (I see it has become archived now and requires a login). Where he says there is a huge scarcity of people in the next generation of writers - particularly academics - who can write scholarly articles in their mother tongue as well as English. The division stems from the English educated gen next being largely comfortable ONLY in English and the new generation learners from second rung cities/towns who are conversant only in their own tongue.
</dig<

[app_engine]

Something that was kicked out of TN during 60's is trying to make a come back

Never Mind ..We will kick out one more time.

I don't have that kind of a confidence now, Joe. I guess the sentiments in TN have radically changed on many things from 60's.

Moreover, DMK is dependent on Cong-I too much now and it kind of reflected in the SL issue overall.

I won't be surprised if they come up with a bunch of flowery words to justify intro of Hindi into TN school system. Karunanidhi may still resist, but he's too old to make much difference IMO and the next generation is not so much anti-caste / anti-religion / anti-Hindi etc.

[joe]

We no need to be anti-Hindi ,infact we shouldn't be against any language and everybody have freedom to learn any language at their expense and interest .But we will be anti- imposing any language upon us ..I have confidence on our people.

[P_R]

app it is not about anti-Hindu. But look at the tone of Kapil Sibal's statement.

It will integrate. Eh ? Sounds like asking 'peripherals' plug into the mainland to complete the nation.

Secondly he says this will eventually lead to having our own lingua franca in place of English.

That is so anachronistic

[P_R]

But we will be anti- imposing any language upon us ..

Exactly...I think Hindi spread more due to Bollywood than prachar sabha. Before Hindi teacher taught me I knew to count ek do theen till 13

I have confidence on our people.

1) Perhaps but who are the politicians who are going to stand up.
2) Even many of the people, though all I am likely to have seen are urban only, don't get exactly why it needs to be resisted. i.e. the threat of cultural dilution (getting Hindi to be the spoken language at work as Kapil Sibal wants !). I believe many will fall if Hindi is sold as a quaint "useful career development skill".

[app_engine]

Correct, I meant "anti-hindi-imposition"

The current political generation has not much ideologies at all, IMO. Possibly their ideology is to build-a-materially-prosperous-TN (and not worry much about any ideological rhetorics).

In a sense, they reflect a typical businessman -say 'yes' to superstitions, 'yes' to alliances of any kind, 'yes' to street smartness but 'no' to ideologies / emotions. Biggest example is the handling of Ilangai ThamizharkaL (making extra security on the coasts, for e.g. and apathetic treatment of refugees in camps).

May be, when it directly touches the lives of village ThamizharkaL (like Hindi in school), there may be a huge reflection in the next election. (ஆட்டக்கடிச்சு, மாட்டக்கடிச்சு...)

[joe]

PR,
கடந்த காலத்தில் இந்தி திணிப்பு போராட்டத்தின் வெற்றி வெறும் திமுக-வின் வெற்றியல்ல ..திமுக தூண்டி விட்டு தான் மக்கள் போராடினார்கள் என்பதை விட ,மக்கள் உணர்வு இருந்த பக்கத்தில் நின்று கொண்டு திமுக அதன் பலனை அனுபவித்தது என்பது தான் எனது புரிதல்.

மற்ற பல விடயங்களில் நம் தமிழக மக்களை நம்ப முடியாது என்றாலும் ,இந்த விடயத்தில் இது 'நீறு பூத்த நெருப்பு ' என்பது என் கணிப்பு .பெரும்பான்மை நகர் சாரா மக்கள் இன்னும் விழிப்போடு தான் இருக்கிறார்கள் ..அவர்களை முன்பு போல நான் குறைத்து மதிப்பிடுவதில்லை .

தப்பித்தவறி மத்திய அரசு இத்தகைய முயற்சியில் இறங்கினால் தமிழகத்தில் மத்திய அரசு மோசமான விளைவுகளை சந்திக்க வேண்டியிருக்கும் .