YOURSAY | ‘Malaysia will continue to fall behind if it treats education like a political football.’

Minister says no to PPSMI revival, to finetune Jawi script lessons

Kita Orangbiasa: Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin, not reverting to teaching and learning science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) is a very regressive step.

Yes, Bahasa Malaysia is our national language and it must be strengthened. But we are now living in a globalised environment.

Most science, mathematical and technology references are in English. Why deprive our children of this opportunity by not teaching science and maths in English?

The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has failed to explain to the people why teaching maths and science in English will be a great disadvantage to our future generation.

Just take a look at the standards of our students. Malaysia is below average! Isn’t that very shameful? As an education minister, isn’t it your duty to see that this matter is corrected?

Are you happy to see our students languish far below average and our so-called graduates not able to do jobs that the market demands? If you are an employer, will you settle for a substandard employee?

The above are some of the concerns we have as parents. As a minister in a responsible government, you have to recognise these concerns and address them accordingly.

If rural students are not faring well in maths and science, then your ministry should do something about it and not take the easy way out.

Since we are on the topic, how did you graduate from La Trobe University in Melbourne and survive as a forensic accounting lecturer at the University of Tasmania, Australia? Didn’t you have to use English?

Kneazle: Both my children were lucky when maths and science were taught in English during Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s days as prime minister. One of my children is now an actuary and the other is a chemist in US.

Many of their classmates, Malays and non-Malays, are working as doctors, pharmacists, and chemists in the UK, Australia, Canada, and in Malaysia as well. 

They have Mahathir to thank for the opportunity to study maths and science in English as they didn't have much difficulty doing their undergraduate courses in English.

Whatever the Malay-Muslim government wants to do with the education system is not my worry anymore. My future generation is finding better opportunity overseas.

P Dev Anand Pillai: So much for science and technology. It’s a pity, only the far-sighted among the Malay parents will guide their young in the right direction, with the cream of the crop going to Mara colleges around the nation.

That’s because they know the importance of being multilingual and the importance of English mastery for future advancement in the global arena. However, the rest who do not will be languishing in our national schools which will become mini madrasahs.

The Indian children, after six years in Tamil schools, will also be in the same boat. The Chinese are safe as they made the very good decision of insisting that they have their way when it came to educating their young, even if it meant that they would have to pay for that choice.

Milshah: I can see there are some complaints in the comments section on Jawi and not teaching math and science in English. However, the protest is far lower compared to when Pakatan Harapan was in government.

Last time, comments numbered into the hundreds and even the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) marched to the Education Ministry making demands.

Now under PN, we only see just some complaints here and there. Does this mean it’s better to have the PN government which sees fewer protests compared to the Harapan government?

Probably those who used to protest now see it as futile because no one in PN would listen to them. I bet you wish Harapan was back and regret calling Harapan a one-term government to teach them a lesson, huh?

GreenPony2214: I, for one, have no qualms for Standard Four non-Malay students to be exposed to some Jawi. I remember studying alif, ba, and tha in my primary school days.

My parents weren’t making any noise, neither were any of my friends’ parents. There were more social assimilation and less racial division then.

As for not reinstating English as the medium of instruction for maths and science, I see this as a bad move by the Education Ministry. In this age of globalisation, the least they could do is to teach these important subjects in English.

Appeasing the masses - the Malay majority - all the time is not necessarily to their benefit. Politicians are constantly manipulating every given chance they have to keep the masses under their control.

What better way than to strangle the quality of education being dished out. I think the entire education system has to be revamped.

Good Governance: If you think about it, it is actually a brilliant strategy. Keep a large number of the population backwards, they will presumably find it harder to get jobs due to lack of skill, and they will be paid less.

This populace will continue to feel slighted by the “richer” part of the population and hence guaranteeing a voter bank for race-based political parties.

Dummies Dhimmi: Keeping the country in the dumps only benefits Umno and PAS. Any move to improve public knowledge through education will be seen as a threat to those in power. The “dumbing down” is intentional.

Also, very expensive private education, which is owned or controlled by certain politically-connected parties, will benefit the elites. Win-win for those in power, lose-lose for citizens.

IndigoTrout2522: Education is like a football. It can be kicked however you like. No wonder the education standard, especially in science, mathematics, technology and English, is so far behind other countries.

Malaysia will continue to fall behind if it treats education like a political football. Its mastery of English was once among the best but now, college graduates can’t even speak properly.

How can Malaysia compete on the world stage? There must be consistency, no matter which party is in charge of the government.

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