3 states unite against English From NST Jan 19 2009
As for vernacular schools, Kelantan, Selangor and Kedah want the subjects to revert to being taught in the medium of the schools.
The decision was made at a meeting of the executive council members in charge of the education portfolios in the three states here yesterday.Although only three states, whose exco members were from Pas, were represented at the inaugural meeting, Kelantan Islamic Development, Education and Dakwah Committee chairman Nik Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah claimed it was well known that the DAP shared the same view.Selangor was represented by state Education, Higher Education and Human Resource Development Committee chairman Dr Halimah Ali and Kedah by its Education, Information Technology and Communication Committee chairman Abdullah Yusuf.Nik Mohd Amar said the Penang exco in charge of education, Dr P. Ramasamy, could not make it as he was only returning from a meeting in Chennai, India, today while his Perak counterpart, Datuk Ngah Kor Ming, had to attend another function.
He said the policy of using English to teach the two subjects was a blow to the "sanctity of Bahasa Malaysia" as the national language."It has created problems for both teachers and students, especially those from the rural areas."Nik Amar said another topic discussed was the possibility of setting up a new university with the same role as Egypt's famed Al-Azhar University as many Malaysian students were facing problems furthering their studies there.He said the university that they had in mind would concentrate solely on religious subjects using the same model as Al-Azhar, and the three states had agreed to draw on their strengths and cooperate in the field"Selangor has Universiti Industri Selangor and Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor, Kedah has Kolej Universiti Insaniah while Kelantan has Kolej Islam Antarabangsa Sultan Ismail Petra."
(1)Its a sad fact of Malaysia that the education is left to the politics and politcians.
(2) which century are they living in ? First AD ?
(3) The world is becoming flat. It will definitely BE flat during the time of my children. This means that if they cannot survive in the global world they will not go far.
(4) Survival in the global world requires mastery in English. There is no two way about it. Good in English, Maths, Science.
(5) They will not lose respect to their mother tongue, culture and religion. To argue so will only mean that bad upbringing.
(6) The idea of school is to equip them with the best knowledge to prepare them for their future. Therefore the thinking of the school should be that the knowledge the children gather is relevant and competitve for the next 20 years. This is to ensure that what they learn in school when they are 10 would still be relevant when they are 30.
(7) And when they are 30, their mastery in maths and science in English is the utmost important. Especially if they want to continue their studies at Oxford, Cambridge,Stanford, London School of Economics, Im sure they will do okay in the local universities but ask yourself, what parent would want their children just to have an OKAY education ?. Best possible education and be all you can be, im pretty sure thats what every parents want for their children.
(8) I think it is the duty of every parent to provide best possible education for his children.
(9) And i am of the opinion that the best education is still found outside of the country for two reasons. Firstly because the best education institution and educators are found outside of Malaysia. Secondly i believe living outside of Malaysia for a few years will teach a student about life and gives him a better insights and broaden his vision about the world.
(10) I think we should expose our children to English at every possible opportunity. To do otherwise is taking a step backwards.
(11) The mother tongue will not be compromised. They use it non stop in their daily conversations but their initial use of English is only limited to their class hours. Because so, we should expose English in classroom as much as possible.
(12) I appreciate the feedback on how teaching in English is going. Any teachers reading this i appreciate you sharing your experience.
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3 comments:
Well, in my humble opinion i don't think that teaching Maths and English in Science and Math subjects will improve their ability in English.
The reasons are these subjects are about calculation which did not rely much on how you can improve your grammar, punctuation and ability to converse well. This is the crucial part rather than we solely based it on calculation and others. Wrong methodology used here to improve someone ability on English. You can ask any language expert opinions.
The best way i think is to provide enough time and facilities for English subject. I'd told to someone from BTN and i would suggest that gov. should provide more allocation on teaching English during school period. It also include the introduction of English Literature, revamp the format of English SPM paper to include all elements like in MUET.
I would not oppose any other ways to improve our English ability but lets do it for English subject and not for Math and Science subject. I prefer both to be in Malay.
Res ipsa loquitor.
Dear Ikmal. I am totally agree with you, especially on how to improve English.
But both Math & Science only excels when people 'argue' with it, not depends solely on calculations. And when it comes to arguments, if you see Iban & Malay using their own native language to argue any equations or theories from Einstein, don't you think even the monkey at the zoo will laugh at them ?
If we see properly in all blogs, only English-based blogs are discussing these issue deeply 'dengan panjang lebar'. Most Malay-written blogs don't even bother to write in full length, obviously because an argument takes lots of 'extra terrestrial' grammar. And the only point they're blurting it out is 'Bahasa Melayu bahasa kebangsaan', or 'supaya Bahasa Melayu tidak pupus'.
They'll make the monkeys in the zoo 'pupus' even sooner, died from laughter.
Jawi is a very good example of a very bad implementation; how many of us can spell 'orgasma' in jawi without prematurely checking the spelling on the second round ? Do we have a Jawi dictionary that has the same thickness as the Malay one ? Thus, how on earth we can match the Malay dictionary with the English one ?
As much as I love to see our teachers being cute and drooling everytime they teach science in malay language, until the language expert can actually not repeating the same mistakes like Jawi, I still prefer the word 'thong' in English, made by someone who use English to make it, and seeing someone who can write in jawi using it.
I guess even the language experts have wet dreams.
i regret for not learning english literature during my schooldays.
there are pros and cons teaching maths and science in english.
it will give advantage to the urban students. but the one who struggle are in rural areas.pick any teachers and they will attest to that.
but to be positive, the pupils in rural areas need to buck up and look beyond their surrounding.world is changing very fast and if we still hold to old mentality, they will miss the bus.
just a 2 cents worth.
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