YOURSAY ‘Why are we systematically and stubbornly destroying a language advantage that we possessed for years?'

PKR is against PPSMI, says Nik Nazmi

Onyourtoes: PKR communications director Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, please be informed that for students who are good in English, this is not because of PPSMI (Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English).

So the advantage you claimed will benefit those students from English-speaking families is not correct. Students from the English-speaking families would have the advantage in English language regardless of PPSMI.

Hence, if you reason logically, PPSMI should actually provide some advantage to the rural students and students not from English-speaking families.

Just look around you, Nik, who are the Malays holding high positions in the corporate sector, GLCs (government-linked companies), and even in statutory bodies and the civil service?

They are largely those with good command of English. If you want to talk about equalising our society, nothing could be more effective than providing an education that can change the mindset and language skill of our students, especially those from the rural areas.

And you talk about many countries that are now learning French, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic as their second language. Yes, they learn a second language after they have mastered English. What about us?

Why are we systematically and stubbornly destroying a language advantage that we possessed for years? I don't think the Malays were less capable in mastering English than non-Malays during the English schools era.

In fact, when they studied together in secondary schools, the Malays were better than many Chinese who came from the Chinese primary schools. Now English is like Greek to most Malaysians, especially the Malays. Please don't play to the gallery, Nik.

The essence of leadership is to provide change and long-term vision for the country, not catering to populist tendency.

If you ask a teacher who has no command of English language, if you ask a student who has never spoken a word of English, of course PPSMI is useless. But if you ask me, I want more than PPSMI, not for selfish reason, but for our national well-being.

Ashoka PJ: I agreed with Onyourtoes. I'm a Malay and both of my daughters articulate well in English. One works in a GLC and another in a leading bank.

Of course, they are at an advantage compared to other bumiputera because they can present themselves well and are not an embarrassment whenever investors come a' calling.

And my daughters' excelling in English is not because it was taught in school (as English was taught to the others as well), but because I took it upon myself to ensure that they communicate with me and their siblings in English at home.

And I have no regrets whatsoever. It is to my daughters' advantage and they are doing so much better than their friends who mastered only BM.

Good men: Stupid. This is not about learning English through Science and Maths. Don't obfuscate. It is about teaching Science and Maths in the language that it is used in.

If our people are to pursue careers in science, they need to be familiar with the terminology in English, not learn it in BM then, when they decide they wish to pursue science and mathematics in further education, suddenly have to do double work, learning new terminologies. Why handicap our budding scientists?

In addition to that, if you wish to be involved in any endeavour at the international level, then English competency is a must. We should try to be good in English because it is the lingua franca of the world. Wake up PKR.

Cascara: The Malays are the ones who are going to suffer eventually if the government rejects PPSMI.

Indian Malaysian students pick up English easily from friends and family. A high percentage of Indians are eloquent in English. Many communicate with family members in English. It becomes easy for them when they seek tertiary education overseas or employment in multinational companies.

The Chinese Malaysians do not fare too badly either. They will somehow acquire the necessary training in the language be it through additional tuition or at the British Council or just by studying overseas.

It is unfortunate that it will be the Malay Malaysians who will have difficulty acquiring fluency in the language as they prefer to use just Bahasa at school, university, home and the workplace, and seldom have a chance to converse in English or just prefer not to.

Anonymous_3dd9: It is a fact that English is the most common language used in sciences and mathematics, especially at research level.

It is also a fact that our students need to be prepared for further education abroad, mostly in English-speaking countries.

Even so, I don't think Malaysian parents object to teaching of Maths and Sciences in Bahasa Malaysia if our Maths and Science materials in BM and the quality of our teachers are up to standard.

Education minister, please look into these areas.

Good men: Nik Nazmi, being intent on learning English in order that we can be competitive in the real world is not an "obsession".

When you come to power, will you later say that our focus on free and fair elections is a "misplaced obsession with democracy"?

Kit P: Malaysia's "obsession" with English? On a visit to China, my host took me around a few of the educational institutions, both government-run and private, which are offering English-language lessons.

The classes are filled to the brim with students keen to learn English. Many see it as a key requirement to better jobs or a promotion.

Malaysia/Malaya started off with a good standard of English in its schools. Short-sighted (shall I say stupid?) government policy saw it necessary to downgrade English in order to promote Bahasa Malaysia.

So here we are 54 years later - the standard of English in our schools is ‘broken' - and all of Muhyiddin's horses and men can never put it back together again.

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