Teaching of Science and Maths in English..time to ditch it?

This is from The NST...under Letters. It's by Khairy Jamaluddin, the PM's famous S-I-L. His points are well argued. TEACHING OF SCIENCE AND MATHS IN ENGLISH: It's high time we ditched this policy.

My take on the issue. In the early days of its implementation, we used to take the students' maths and science answer scripts and be aghast by the way they answered. Occasionally we'd get a good laugh because of the way they put the answers together. There were objections to the implementation but they weren't vehemently put up. Guess most saw the need and maybe also because we were also more secure with our own identity.

Politics aside...this policy was hastily executed. Not many in depth studies were carried out to see whether we were ready for it. But I guess it's not actually feasible to wait for readiness. Sometimes one has to take the bull by its horn....and overcome the problems as they come. Tun Mahathir probably saw something we don't.

The main problem (there are other problems too) with this programme right from the start and even now is probably the teachers. I've written about it here before. Over the years, due to the lack of emphasis on English, the standard of English has deteriorated to a laughable standard. One just has to read the Advertorial put up by University Tun Hussein Onn to get a grasp of the actual problem. So how can one expect the students who are taught by teachers who themselves do not have a proper grasp of the language to learn? Maths and Science in BM, were already hard enough for the students. With the exception of the Chinese vernacular schools who have somewhat managed to get a better grasp of the subjects (Math especially), the national school students actually have a dismal grasp...this is from a general perspective. This may has something to do with the attitude too but that is not the focus of this writing here.

Over the years, in the heat of nationalism and NEP, the quality of those trained to be teachers is in serious doubt. I used to have students who could barely speak English being picked to go for TESL courses. There are many others who would be better suited but these would usually be sidelined due to the nature of our politics. So we had this 'half-baked' students who eventually became 'slightly-more-half-baked teachers'; after spending 4 years in the uni; sent into our system. Is it any surprise that they then produce 'quarter-baked' students? And today you have English teachers grappling with basic grammar problems, the inability sometimes to differentiate between singular-plural, lack of vocabulary...the list goes on. These are something of a no-no for English teachers of yesteryears.

My cohort of Form 1 students this year has a deplorable command of English. They are actually worse than the previous years'. The standard of English among them has actually become worse....that despite more exposure to English from Math and Science. Something does not feel right. Language is supposed to be easier to master when we use it constantly..but the opposite seems to be happening. Surely that has to imply something.

English lessons are not properly conducted in the primary school, and also the secondary school. I teach English and most of the time I've had to resort to BM to explain. Why? Because I would draw blank looks! It's as though the students have developed a mental block when the language is used. How did such a block get there? Such is the state of our suburban and rural students. But as they start to adapt and train their ears to spoken English,they are beginning to see some light. There seems to be some understanding now. At this level, I should not be dealing with such basic problems. Yet that is the reality. I may be teaching 13 year-olds but truth be told, most of the time I feel I am doing really basic stuff with them. I teach my own 7 year old kid more complicated stuff! I can only come to the conclusion that the fault lies with us, teachers.

If we are taught by 'incompetent' teachers, how are we to produce competent students? If we are inspired by mediocre teachers, how are we to be world beaters?? Beats me how things are turning out cos we have better facilities and infrastructure...but everyone is complaining that our graduates are not marketable. What gives? And I am part of that system.

It's not just the quality of English teachers who are in question here. It's nearly the whole teaching fraternity. Teachers today are not an inquisitive lot. Neither are many into upgrading themselves intellectually. True there more taking their postgrad studies but this exercise does not seem to translate into 'better' teachers for the system. We are not doing better than before cos our end products (the students) just don't seem to measure up to the demands of the society. What gives? Teachers are supposed to be dynamic people... eccentricities, quirkiness etc, etc are also part and parcel.

While Khairy may argue his points well, he bypassed our education system. He comes from the privileged class... How can he fully know? Whole generations have lost out in terms of competitiveness because of the lack of a language. Problems....and we say ditch. The world is going to bypass us if we continue to be wishy washy. Fact - everyone acknowledges that English is the lingua franca of today's world. It's time we get down to work and stay working..not change at the first signs of problems.

It's going to take some time to see this work. If we abandon this now, we'll lose more of our competitiveness. We no longer have the advantage of cheap labour. Someday we're going to run out of oil. We have to start positioning ourselves to the other end of the production line, one based on service, intellectual property and human capital. How are we to develop our human capital if we keep backtracking?

To switch to English, the government spent more than RM3 billion. To revert to BM, we have to spend another huge amount. There are those who suggest that we focus more on language teaching and return to BM as the medium of instruction for Math and Science. I am a product of a transitional stage too...the transition was from English to BM as the medium of instruction. My teachers struggled with their BM but still they taught us well. They would stutter, get stuck...but lessons were generally conducted in BM. So, how is it that the first transitional stage went well? I can't see any other reason except the teachers. To a larger extent, the failure of PPSMI lies in a big part on the teachers....the quality of teachers. I will draw flaks if the teaching fraternity reads this....