its a sad sad day

it is always a sad sad day when politics gets mixed in with education.

why? it's because education shapes the minds of our nations. which is also why it is so very tempting to interfere in.

today, the Cabinet announced that Science and Maths for government schools shall be converted back into Bahasa Malaysia or is it Bahasa Melayu ( i have lost track on the number of times someone higher up in the hierarchy has decided to change it to please some quarters and revert to please others, whoever makes more noise )

parents are not happy.

i am not happy.

just when the newspapers are singing praises to najib for his 100th day in office, i think this really marks a VERY LARGE DENT in his office.

here's why?

1. converting it back into BM with the excuse that weaker students have been unable to cope is a stark example of how the Malaysian education system seems more interested in the policy of protecting and spoon feeding rather than producing a nation of competitive, brilliant and outstanding individuals who will take the country to greater heights. ( note the current case in court whereby a lecturer is suing a public university for sacking her because she stood her ground in refusing to "moderate" the marks of an exam so that some students would pass)

2. the excuse that teachers are not proficient enough to teach in English and therefore would not be able to educate properly is a lame one, firstly, because they had just announced that they were going to hire some hundred of thousands more to boost English speaking ( why couldnt the same have been done for Science and Maths ) and secondly, it merely illustrates the failure of the education system in producing teachers that are well-versed, or the training of teachers.

3. having English as the medium of communication for Science and Maths further increased the chances in which students could converse in those languages. inevitably, proficiency increases, regardless of whatever research the executive chose to rely on.

4. universally used scientific and mathematical terms are in English. words like jangkang, and pemejalwapan are unlikely to make much sense to students who have progressed on to university and are now faced with the challenge of relearning scientific concepts.

5. BM does not have the required depth in terms of vocabulary to cater for scientifc terms. often words are simply converted by changing the letter c to k e.g. condensation becomes kondensasi, choride becomes klorida.

6. it is unfair to say that using English as a teaching medium for Science and Maths causes us Malaysians to lose our culture and heritage as the other subjects are all taught in BM. also, we must realise that we do not live in a vacuum and our students should not only be fluent in BM but also in English as at the end of the day English IS the lingua franca of the 21st century, and unless and until we can produce students who can compose a decent essay in English, speak, and converse well in the language ( and not students whose English vocabulary consists only of corny pick up line and profanities ) we will continue being viewed as inferior.

this is reality. English is important.

it is a sad, sad day indeed. what's even sadder is that those making the decisions won't have to bear the brunt of this reality.