1. I refer to the letter written by Puan Roz Mawar, the Chair of PAGE in the Star paper (Letters to the Editor) dated 30 June 2009 where she raised the concerned by PAGE on the potential reversal of policy by the MOE on the teachings of Math’s and Science in English (PPSMI).
2. As a parent I share the concern of PAGE in this matter. I must say that from the onset PAGE faced a difficult and uphill battle because in country like ours where major issues are concerned, politicians will have a final say and not the government servant.
3. In the case of Education, PAGE may have the statistics and studies to support its case but unfortunately in these instances it is least importance to the ultimate decision maker. The fate of our children education in this country solely lies with the political survival of the politicians.
4. The reality is that BN (in particularly UMNO) is struggling politically internally as well as externally. Internally MCA and MIC is pushing their political agenda and externally it is facing the onslaught of Pakatan Rakyat on every front.
5. I am extremely unhappy to both BN and PR in using the issue of PPSMI for their own political mileage. Anwar too is equally guilty as BN in addressing this matter. The Chinese Educationist group is complaining because they say it will dilute the hours the Chinese school will teach Mandarin and this may have an impact on their mother tongue. The Malay Nationalist is arguing on the basis that English is not the nation lingua franca.
6. As an outsider looking in, it is quite clear that the fate of continuing PPSMI is very slim. Johor UMNO which is currently the backbone of UMNO in the Peninsular is dead set against it. Deputy Education Ministers Puad Zarkashi and Wee Ka Siong are against it and have not acted in a fair manner in evaluating this issue. It is public knowledge that Muhyuddin is the Education Minister is a Johorean. It looks like the fate of PPSMI has been sealed by Johor UMNO and Mr. Wee Ka Siong.
7. Personally, whatever the reasons may be, as a parent I am absolutely upset with the issue being managed from a political angle rather than from scientific point of view. I am upset that politicians are using my children as an experiment to serve their own needs. Our voices as parents have drowned in the ocean of politics. Having said that, as a parent with no political backing, my options are rather limited.
8. A responsible government must provide a policy that is based on the needs of the people. It must be fair. It must accommodate the weak and the strong. It MUST NOT create policy solely for the purposes political mileage. The PPSMI has shown that ability to speak or read or write BM has not diluted among the children and they gain the strength of comprehending the math’s and science in English. As a parent I urge the government to give people the freedom to choose.
9. I would like to APPEAL to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Education to let parents at the school level to decide and chose what is best for their children. Schools have PIBG (PTA) and as such parents must be given a chance to say what they want for their kids. Illegal organization like PIBG-N has no legal locus to represent us, the parents. We did not appoint them to speak on our behalf. PIBGN is an illegal association that goes against the Education Act and as such cannot talk on our behalf.
10. We live in the 21st century. The challenge of 21st century is different from the 70’s and the 80’s. Not all parents are rich enough to send their children into private school to strengthen their ability to learn Math’s and Science in English. If BN finds it fit to accommodate the Chinese Educationist and Indians in maintaining their respective language despite it has divided people in this country, what further harm it can do if it allows some schools to run PPSMI. Let the parents today decides which school should maintain the PPSMI.
11. Lastly, I believe in fair play. If we are really sincere and seriously fighting for “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” and one to take Malaysian to the level of 1-Malaysian, then take the challenge and close all the Chinese and Tamil schools and run one type school for the nation i.e. Sekolah Kebangsaan. Only then it would be fair for the government to bury PPSMI. As long as the SJKC and SJKT exist that the PPSMI based has the right to co-exist. The people must be given the freedom to choose.
Mej (B) Dr Mohamed Rafick Khan bin Abdul Rahman
“A parent whose heart cries for the nation”
revert back to bahasa melayu for ppsmi is something upset to me . saya mempunyai 3 org anak perempuan yg melalui proses pengajaran science & math in english, walaupun di rumah saya berbahasa melayu tapi perbendaharaan kata (Vocab) mereka dalam bahasa inggeris semakin bertambah setiap hari. Anak sulung saya adalah pelajar tahun pertama ppsmi ini/ yr1 2003. This is really impress me. Kenapa setelah mereka selesa dengan pembelajaran science & math dalam inggeris kerajaan mengambil keputusan utk menukar semula dlm bhs melayu ???.
It is not a question of Bahasa, English, Science, or Math. Many people who work regionally will tell you that you better be able to learn new things in whatever language it happens to be taught in.
Malaysians should use this as an opportunity to start learning how to learn using a language other that the mother tongue.
Where we work, we need to read (and learn) new stuff ALL THE TIME in English, Indonesian, Chinese, AND Vietnamese. Seemed tough at first, by now, everyone in the office can do it.
So what is the problem swithching back to Bahasa? The world is a heck of a lot tougher than learning science/math in English or Bahasa, so people should start getting used to it.
Multi-Lingualism is a reality – Get used to it.
I am totally frustrated with decision to revert to BM to teach Maths & Science. Can’t understand the reasons for it.
I am under the impression that our kids in schools are doing well since the pass rates seems to be going up every year and more kids scored more As.
Maybe I did not read the paper well enough. So I did a search on the internet and
1. Only in Nov last year, UPSR results was announced as being better than last 5 years results. The Director-General of Education, Datuk Alimudin Mohd Dom, supporting the results, said the score this time was better compared with 7.8 per cent in the previous five years.
We were told 2008 is significant as Year Six pupils in 2008 have been taught entirely in English. So the fate of our children was decided by only 1 year of result in 2008. Wise man we have up there looking after the interests of ordinary Malaysian.
2. Previous Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said “ This proves that teaching and learning of Maths and Science in schools has not been a failure but I am not saying that the system is complete or perfect and it can be improved”. Wow, Can you believe that ? Not a failure. What your friend DPM says is different. Don’t you guys do some alignment before you talk ?
3. Previous Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein went on to say “57 per cent of the candidates answered their questions in English, indicating that they were comfortable using the language and that the Ministry was proud of it”. I am proud of it. Not you apparently. Well, at least not the DPM.
4. The results for 2008’s (UPSR), saw a significant increase in pupils who scored As in English. There was a 4.4 per cent hike in the number of pupils who scored As in English, as compared with the national average of the past five years’ results. There was also a 4.8 per cent increase in competent students (those who scored A, B or C) in the language. An indrect consequence of teaching Maths & Science in English ? Worth considering. Cheaper too instead of blowing away billions of rakyat hard earned ringgits.
5. In 2008 a whopping 46.6 per cent of pupils chose to answer the Mathematics paper in English, while 31.1 per cent were confident enough to tackle the Science paper in English, compared with just 0.2 and 0.3 per cent respectively last year. “Their level of proficiency in English is getting better,” said Education Ministry director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom, after releasing the UPSR results. This year’s UPSR pupils formed the pioneer batch which was taught Mathematics and Science in English right from Year One in 2003. Are you afraid more people will choose to answer the papers in English ? Is that why PPSMI is abolished this year for fear it will become successful ?
6. Results for the Mathematics paper, however, showed a 2.2 per cent decrease in both A scorers and competent students. Alimuddin dismissed any significance in the drop, arguing that it had very little to do with the teaching of the subject in English. But our DPM has a different opinion. He showed us UPSR chart with low scores and cited the result in Trend report. Oh, by the way, this survey in the report (TIMSS) was carried out only once every 4 years. The last was in 2007. So conclusion drawn only after 1 survey.
7. “There are very few English terms that pupils had to remember for Mathematics. If anything, it is the Science subject which should show significant changes as there are more terms.” and “Performance in the Science subject only dipped by 0.7 per cent compared with the average over the last five years.” Alimuddin. the man himself, said “the dip is insignificant.”. Did you tell DPM that ?
8. There is also an increase in the number of pupils scoring As in all subjects. Of the 518,616 pupils, 46,641 passed with flying colours. “Apart from English, the pupils also generally did significantly better in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese composition and Tamil composition.” We did ok with PPSMI or didn’t we ?
9. In 2007, eight subjects recorded over 80% pass scores, including Bahasa Melayu SK (Comprehension) at 92.6%, Science (85.7%) and Mathematics (85.3%). Chart shown by DPM shows Science ( Urban 85.1% Rural 83.2% ) & Maths ( Urban 84.8% Rural 80.9% ). I don’t understand why urban & rural scores should be lower than the composite score. Please enlighten me.
10. Why shows urban & rural scores when Alimuddin says “This shows that sometimes location does not play an important role. It indicates that rural students can also achieve good results.”
11. Why based decision only on UPSR ? What about PMR ?
12. In 2007 PMR results saw an average increase of around 1% in subject pass rates, the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) 2007 Mathematics paper stood out for its improvement of 4.2% compared to last year. This is the third batch of students who are taking the PMR exams after studying Mathematics and Science in English from Form One. Same story again. We did well in Maths
.
13. Alimuddin told reporters during the announcement of the PMR 2007 results analysis yesterday that the differences between rural and urban students in the Mathematics and Science papers were not statistically significant.
14. We did well too in “The Bahasa Melayu paper also improved with 26.7% of candidates scoring As compared to 22.6% last year.” BM also OK.
15. Despite an increase in the pass rate for English, the number of candidates who scored an A in the subject fell from 15.5% last year to 14.8%, marking a decline for three continuous years. “What is more important is the overall pass rate, which has increased. The fall (in the number of As) is less than 1%, which is not a big worry for us,” said Alimuddin, when asked whether this was a cause for concern. Don’t worry, Everything is OK.
16. Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the PMR results in 2008 was better than last year in terms of the number of candidates getting grade A to E in the subjects they had taken. PMR 2008 also OK.
“The results in all subjects, except for Geography and Arabic Communication, are better than last year with English achieving the highest increase by 3.6 per cent,” he said when announcing the results here today. Maybe we should focus on Geography & Arabic Communication this year instead of PPSMI. Don’t you think so ?
17. He said the disparity in the performance between urban and rural candidates have narrowed especially in Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics and Science.
“The reduced disparity shows that the second thrust of the Education Strategic Planning in the Education Development Masterplan, that is to bridge the performance gap between urban and rural students, has met its objectives,” he said. DPM, we are improving. Not getting worse.
18. He said 51.2 per cent of the candidates answered Science papers in English this year compared to 21.5 per cent last year, and 26.9 per cent tackled Mathematics questions in English compared to 4.6 per cent last year.
and lastly,
19. Hishammuddin commenting on 2008 PMR results, “A lot of allegations and findings were made without empirical facts and figures. This is the first group that has sat for exams and fears they would not perform depended very much on these results. I see that most of the fears are unfounded.”
He then took a quantum leap to link the favourable PMR results with the controversy over the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Std. One in the primary schools, claiming that the controversy is now settled and that the problem is over “the question of implementation and not policy”.
All the above are cut & pasted from various news articles published in the newspaper & web.
disappointed with ppsmi decision. being an ex-engineer basically all the engineering terminology and correspondances in the engineering world here in malaysia are in english. at the construction site we say beam not rasuk, pilecap not tetopi cerucuk, reinforced concrete not konkrit tetulang and the list goes on. . . you know how difficult it is to get a bumi engineering graduate who can express himself in english ? it’s going to get worse.
Damaged has been done for three generations and will continue from today ( 8/07/09) onwards, sad day for this country, run by a bunch of clowns!
Saya sangat bersetuju dengan anda. Kenapa dalam negara yg bebas merdeka, di manakah hak saya sebagai ibubapa untuk memilih apakah yg terbaik untuk anak2 saya. Hati saya merintih bila 2 orang anak saya dijadikan kambing hitam oleh orang2 yg mementingkan survival politik mereka.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.