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Parents and students should decide which lenguage they wish to learn in. Not Anwar Ibrachim, nor the education minister, nor the PM has that right. The constitution protects the majority english speakers that right.

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The debate is absurd and of outdated mentality.

"The threat of English" is common around the world, Malaysia is not alone (although a little behind). It is an "issue" for a number of countries in Asia, ,Europe, Russia and Africa. I've discuss the subject to the natives of those countries and it is clear to me that the next generation will be English speaker. However, I am also sure that they will maintain their mother tongue.

I think we need to lift ourselves and take a broad as well as long perspective on the subject. English is becoming "The Second Language" of the World. Note "second", not first. It is the common medium we all human being can communicate. It is good to have a common medium, it is good for the economy and even world peace through better communication thus mutual understanding.

In 10 years time, China will most likely have the most English speakers in this world. Are they worried that they will "loose their culture"? No way ! For those who oppose to English, I say its time to open up your eyes to the larger world.

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If the bulk of the Chinese can bring themselves to learn in English, what is the rest of the world to argue with?

Trying to learn modern things with an archaic language more suited for the arts is tough, very tough. Even liberal doses of English words truncated and bastardised does not help but confuse further.

A university don told me privately that we are in trouble. Our best and brightest no longer choose engineering or the technical fields, and we are wasting precious talent while we argue the languages. Where will Malaysia lead to? Tunggu durian runtuh will be very apt while we depend on UMNO to protect us?

More of a 'harap pagar, pagar makan padi..."

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Who oppose English?

Is the word lucid and absurd bear the same meaning?

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Let’s have 2 medium of instruction like in the 1960s & 1970s.

..English Medium for those who want to study & excel in English. More Malaysian Professionals trained in English will be produced. PTAs will be happy.

..Malay Medium for those who want to study & excel in Malay. More Malaysian Professionals trained in Malay will be produced. Politicians will be happy too.

These should help to maintain overall educational standards.

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Arubin,

There are quite a number of theories. Some also believe that rote learning and Hanzi in pictorial form that stimulate our right brain is the cause. In my own opinion, Chinese is strong in arithmetic, not mathematics. Gweilo perform much better in concept of mathematics.

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English ke, BM ke, Mandarin ke, Tamil ke, Semua boleh pakai for S&M teaching. Yg tak boleh pakai is BN Education Minister and BN government's education policy and practice.

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yes shissun is 100% correct!

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Stop debating whether English should be used to teach Sc and Maths. The real problem is "Which is the best language for the Education of Malaysians?"

If you want to unite Malaysians choose a non indigenous language.
If you want to take Malaysia into the 21st Century choose a language that is universally acceptable in ALL spheres of endeavour
If you want the universal language that most other countries have chosen as a compulsary second language choose English
If you want to improve the teaching of English at all levels of the MES then double the pay of English competent teachers

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I am now so embarassed with Bahasa Melayu or Malaysia, a mutated language. Stupid spelling ....

what is going to happen to our younger generations.....? (wak iz ko-in du awa yanger jenerasion?- in Bahasa..........)

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Here we go again. We debate, we agree to disagree, we offer our opinions and advice. At the end of the day, UMNO bigots think all this is just endless rigmarole by us. Their minds are pretty much made up. Make BM a world class and international language. They said that once. How laughable when they thought they could make the rest of the world learn and use BM, and what a racialist overtone to win more votes. I suggest this - - what ever is decided by the govt, just get your kids to brush up English after school hours, at home or language centres. Majority of the school teachers now are not proficient. Pls do not be too optimistic about UMNO racists and nationalists changing their mindset about making BM being a choice for the rest of the world. Even language is used as a political tool, not just race and religion.

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Those who favour the use of English give the usual argument about how a handle on the English language will improve the chance of children’s survival on the job market in future. Their opponents argue on nationalist sentiments. The twain shall never meet.

It is not about chances in the job market versus nationalist sentiments. It is about how the nation's money is to be spent with regard to education of the next generation. those who argue about the job market are already thinking in terms of the big fat salary they dream of receiving in the US or abroad.

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English should be taught as a LANGUAGE and MOST IMPORTANTLY, TO BE TAUGHT WELL.

In every country, the main medium of instruction for the school should be the national language. English, like French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Japanese etc ... should be taught as second-third languages where the children (or more specifically the parents) feel the NEED AND NECESSITY.

The scientists and engineers in other European countries learn ALL THE BASICS in the national language and more on ENglish when they reach the research level where they need higher competency in ENglish or decided to go international. IT IS MORE IMPERATIVE THAT SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS ARE TAUGHT WELL AND PROPERLY THAN IN WHATEVER LANGUAGES - a good grounding and foundation in science and mathematics TRANSCEND languages - you don't believe me, just ask any scientists and mathematicians. You can be fluent like a canary in ENglish but if your grounding is poor in science and maths, it will show and you will FAIL !! SO PLEASE MR POLITICIANS GET YOUR PRIORITY RIGHT !! TEACH SCIENCE AND MATHS PROPERLY AND WELL - that's the key !!! Not whether it is in English, BM, CHinese, Tagalog, Japanese, Urdu, German, French whatever - DON'T MISS THE ACTUAL PROBLEM IN MALAYSIAN EDUCATION OF SCIENCE AND MATHS !!! (FYI: I learned all my sciences and maths in BM in my early primary and secondary school, and then switch over for the next 30 years in English - no problem, so what !!)

It should be left to the INDVIDUAL to learn what they feel will be best.

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Densemy,

You are direct and absolutely right on the subject! Too much time is wasted on politicising the issue! The PM and DPM are from the English-medium-educated generation in the 50s and 60s. They know what's it was like! So, DO IT NOW, for the good of the younger generations!

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We need to go back a little to history. After May 13 in 1969, Rahman Yakub from Sarawak was the education Minister. He replaced English with Malay as a medium of instruction beginning in 1970, and from that year, students from Primary one were taught in Malay in all subjects. So, from 1983 the Malay medium students began their university education.

Mahathir was sacked by Tunku in 1969. Tun Razak brought in Mahathir and made him Education Minister in 1972, perhaps to spike Tunku, or as a reward for the May 13 conspiracy (?). Mahathir did nothing to stop Rahman Yakub’s harm on education in Malaysia.

Mahathir was PM in July 1981. He had all the power to change the education system to help students improve their English, but he did not. He cannot claim that he was not wise enough then to know the importance of English until 2002 when he directed the teaching of mathematics and science in English.

It is not wrong to let students learn the two subjects in English, but the crucial question is when to begin learning them.

The Chinese primary schools have been teaching Mathematics and science in Chinese in primary schools. Some Chinese secondary schools continued teaching these subjects in Chinese while others beginning teaching them in English starting from secondary one (year 7), or Form one. In Chung Ling High School, the medium of instruction for secondary school was English beginning in the 1950s. The students had to take Chinese language and Chinese literature for public examinations, of course. Han Chiang High School in Penang had Chinese as the medium of instruction for mathematics and science in 1950s, and the schools produced many scientists all the same.

Chung Ling in Penang proved that students who began learning the two subjects in English were able to gain direct admission to universities in USA based on school results. Chung Ling certainly produced many successful students who did not have to learn the two subjects in English from primary school.

The quarrel with the policy of teaching mathematics and science is not the use of the medium of instruction; it is the timing of introducing them. The Chinese educationists objected to teaching them in primary schools; and they would welcome it in secondary schools.

Malaysia has the habit of doing the right thing wrong!

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There you have it. The mistake was done way back in the 70s when the government decided only BM be used to teach all subjects for the national school. In my point of view the Malay are the primary victim of this policy as the malay can only master one language. The worst thing was that they even change the english subject from traditional to communication english. That help some Malays get some job with Mc Donald but the writing and grammar skill were quite bad. One mistake lead to another and here we are wondering what to do. My kids suffer today for some bad decision made 30 years ago but the person who made the decision sent their kids to UK and became the PM today.

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Actually there is a solution and it is so simple to solve this problem but due to stupidity and arrogance,they prefer to choose a stupid solution.ie to pick one over the other one.

Malaysia can never be developed if we are stuck with semi-moron government,other than vomiting blood,I don't know what to do.If these people were to be put into a company and ask to run that company,I'm sure it would go bust within 6 months.They do not understand demand and supply,they cannot differentiate between wants and needs.They only know how to eat ! Sigh..

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I think its about time we wake up and move forward!...our neighbour Singapore is already so far ahead and we need to catch up. If we continue with the old way of doing things...we are just saying that we do not want to move forward but rather remain status quo or worst still slide even further back.

Recognise the past mistakes and rectified it, not to enhance in further by sticking with old ways. If the old ways had worked...we would have gone so much more ahead of Singapore as we started on even footing then.

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Why can't a student decide what language he or she wants to learn in ?. As long as Malay is taught as a language and Ilmu Alam and Ilmu Tawarikh taught in Malay in all schools it should be alright. A student can then decide whether he or she wants to be in a Malay teaching School, English teaching school, Chinese teaching school or Tamil teaching School. This way not everybody will be forced to study in a particular language that he or she is not comfortable in.

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teach the kids everything in English.
let them speak whatever language they want at home.
that way you are doing the future generations a favour.

you can teach science and maths in chinese,tamil or german
because these are evolved languages. but please don't compare
these languages to BM which is infantile.
I'm not trying to belittle BM but one has to accept limitations.

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Most Scandinavians can speak some decent English beside their own language, why not Malaysians? More and more Chinese in China can also speak English, but less and less Malaysians can speak English especially a certain ethnic group.

Admittedly, just like us, those Scandinavians and Chinese study in their own language in their schools, but why they can speak English and our students can't?


You Nationalist and stupid Politicians out there, please improve the QUALITY AND STANDARD OF TEACHERS in our country! You can't have a teacher who is incompetent in English to teach English, a case of a blind leading a blind.

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A few days ago, Prime Minister Mori was given some Basic English conversation training before he visits Washington and meets president Barack Obama...

The instructor told Mori Prime Minister, "When you shake hand with President Obama, please say 'How are you?'. Then Mr. Obama should say, 'I am fine, and you?' Now, you should say 'Me too'. Afterwards we, translators, will do the work for you."

It looks quite simple, but the truth is...

When Mori met Obama , he mistakenly said 'Who are you?' (Instead of 'How are you?'.)

Mr. Obama was a bit shocked but still managed to react with humor: 'Well, I'm Michelle's husband, ha-ha...'

Then Mori replied 'Me too, ha-ha.. .'.

Then there was a long silence in the meeting room.

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I hate to put my 2 sen into this discussion but just have to give my thoughts on this matter. I judged all this fuss about BM in Maths and Science is for certain groups (BN politicians) to make Malaysian graduates - "useless" and un-employed outside Malaysia. Like that all the new graduates and whole generations will have to depend on the government for their livelihood - in that way they (BN) can continue to be voted into power.

But alas .... only the Malays will lose out. I know the other races will survive and will still put in the effort to learn English. So, in the end only the majority of rural Malays will be screwed by the government. 'Cos the politicians will all be sending their children overseas to study in English ... only the kampong folks will be continued to be marginalized!

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Dear Arubin,

using Chinese to teach mathematics conveys an advantage up to a point. Through the use of rote learning, Chinese educated students enjoyed a distinct advantage up to Form 5. I can attest to this fact that the chinese primary stream classmates of mine found maths easier than me.

The advantage dissappears by the time they get to Form 6 and comes university where creativity is stressed, they actually loose out.

The other area of applied mathematics and mechanics, I tend to find that chinese educated students tend to fare badly.

There are always pros and cons.

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Dear Rhan,
I think you just have a f***ing chip on your shoulder. You went round snipping others with degrading words. Everyone, yourself included, knows well that what are posted here are NOT going to change a thing in our national education policy. Neither will policy makers turn to this forum as a source of feedback. This is merely a forum for readers to express their views and opinions freely. However, if you are of a different opinion, you should now realise you don't belong here. Please leave behind peace and harmony for other readers of this forum and you get the f*c* out of here.
By the way, in your 105-word posting meant for me, you made a very serious syntax error in term of sentence construction in the second paragraph. You further made at least 3 other grammatical errors.
Cheers !

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