Influential Chinese education movement Dong Jiao Zong has threatened to launch a massive nationwide protest should the government decide to continue with its controversial policy of teaching Science and Maths in English.
The United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong) president Ong Chiow Chuen urged the government to reverse the language-switch policy, which was implemented in 2003 amid strong objections.
According to Ong, the Education Ministry is scheduled to hold its fifth round-table meeting on Dec 16 to gather views of stakeholders."This will be the last meeting. We will be sending two representatives to raise objections of the people on the use of English to teach Science and Maths.
"We want the mother-tongue language to be used in the teaching of Science and Maths in all vernacular primary schools starting from next year," he told Malaysiakini when contacted today.
Does not help students
Failing a positive response, he said, Dong Jiao Zong will join forces with other vernacular education groups and Chinese associations to initiate a massive nationwide protest.
He argued that the academic results since the language-switch policy was implemented have shown that the policy does not help students to improve their proficiency in English.
The campaign against the language switch is also supported by Tamil and Malay education groups, while Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman said the policy has widened the divide between urban and rural schools, as well as affected the learning ability of Malay students.
At the recently-concluded PKR Youth congress, a resolution was passed describing the teaching of Science and Maths in English as a "betrayal of the position of Bahasa Melayu as the national language".
Teaching Science and Maths in English was the brainchild of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to improve students' proficiency in the language.
The policy was implemented in all national schools but an alternative formula was reached for vernacular Chinese schools as a compromise after strong protests from the community.
Critics have claimed that the policy was introduced as part of the government’s plan to phase out vernacular schools.
The Education Ministry has maintained that the students have benefitted from the policy.
According to figures revealed in Parliament in May, a total of RM3.2 billion has been spent over the past five years in carrying out the teaching of Science and Maths in English, with a large portion being spent on the purchase of ICT equipment - malaysiakini.com
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2 comments:
Teaching maths and science in english language is not all that bad. It can be done but it should have been done in stages. The teachers should first be proficient in english before they can actually teach in it. As we can see so far most of the teachers are still not up to the standard in english. As a result, many of the students are not able to understand the lessons taught. There is another way for english standard to improve ie. make it compulsory for students to get a credit in english like in the past to pass exams. :)
Just can't understand what this dong jiao zong fellows want. Teaching maths and science in english is the correct move.I don't think it's wise to study the two subjects in chinese in primary school then switch to malay in secondary school and then again switch to english when you are in college. You need to have a good command of english language to survive in this competitive global economy. Not just chinese or malay. Even the chinese in china are learning english.
Please don't destroy our children's future for your own selfish political ambition.
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