Gerakan proposes tinkering of education policy
Malaysiakini.com
Jun 6, 2008
Athi Veeranggan 

Gerakan has proposed a slight amendment to the use of English to teach Mathematics and Science at all levels as being implemented at present.
MCPX

The party said that while it supported English being used to teach the two core subjects, it however wanted that policy to be implemented only at the secondary and tertiary levels.

Primary schools, the party's acting president Dr Koh Tsu Koon said, should be excluded and be allowed to use Malay or ethnic languages like Mandarin and Tamil when teaching the two subjects.

gerakan agm 2006 koh tsu koonKoh articulated this position at a business seminar in Penang on Thursday.

The government policy to use English for the two subjects was implemented in 2003, aimed at improving English language skills among our students.

It was started at primary school level and is to be followed through as the students progress academically.

Malay language proponents however want to use Malay for the teaching of Mathematics and Science at all levels.

Koh disagreed with them, however he does not wholly agree with the federal government's policy either.

By adopting Gerakan's position, Koh said, school children from different communities, especially the main ones, would have a strong foundation of languages when they move up to secondary and tertiary education.

"Teaching of mother tongues at primary schools would nurture knowledge among children in their own language and culture. This bode well for the future of multi-lingual and multi-cultural Malaysian society," he said.

Koh said the party has already expressed its views on the matter to the federal government leadership.

Early findings of a study

Koh characterised any move to restore Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction for the said subjects at secondary and tertiary levels as ‘a step backward'.

He said the federal government should not be cowered by minority pressure groups and change the education system for their benefit.

english medium for maths and science education in chinese schoolGerakan is also convinced that using English to teach Mathematics and Science at secondary and tertiary levels will help strengthen the country's education fundamentals, resulting in a pool of professional manpower which can match other countries in a rapidly competitive global employment market.

For that to happen he said, English has to be medium of instruction for technology subjects at levels above primary education.

Otherwise Koh forewarned, Malaysia could fall behind globally.

The use of English for the two languages has also been criticised by mother-tongue language groups who felt that students from vernacular schools would find it easy to understand the subjects if they were taught in a language known to the students.

The government is presently undertaking a study to evaluate the pros and cons of using English or Bahasa Malaysia for teaching the two subjects.

The findings will then be used by the Education Ministry to decide whether to revert to the use of BM or continue with the use of English by the end of this year.

A preliminary finding of the study had revealed that there was little difference in the performance of students whether they learn Mathematics and Science in English or Bahasa Malaysia.

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