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What about the Chinese community? Having sacrificed a generation of guinea pigs, what are they going to do in the face of the new changes? By LIM MUN FAH/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily
A dejected former PM Tun Dr Mahathir says even if the policy of teaching science and maths in English cannot be implemented in primary schools, at least it should be implemented in secondary schools. It has taken Tun Mahathir six years to come to terms with what the Chinese community feels. But then he is no longer the man in power, and could only stare at the reality helplessly. Starting 2012, everything will be back to square one. Science and maths will be taught in students' mother tongues and Bahasa in primary and secondary schools respectively. This decision meets the aspiration of Malay educationists and nationalists. But they are not going to stop just that. They are still fighting for science and math subjects to be taught in Bahasa in Form 6 or pre-U. What about the Chinese community? Having sacrificed a generation of guinea pigs, what are they going to do in the face of the new changes? Stopping all the controversies may not stop us from worrying about the future of our children. The case study published on Sin Chew Daily's front page could be bone-chilling! Just take a look: Xiaoli is presently in Standard One, learning science and maths in both Mandarin and English. In 2012, when she will be in Standard Four, she will have to learn these two subjects in Mandarin only. But when she goes to a national-type secondary school in 2015, she will have to learn science and maths in Bahasa Malaysia. And when she proceeds to Form Six in 2020, she will have to switch to English again for these two subjects. One moment bilingual, one moment Mandarin, one moment BM and one moment English. Is this kind of learning process normal? Does that go well with our educational philosophy? How could our kids not weep, their parents not worried, and teachers not annoyed? As if that is not enough, under the new solution, how should Chinese primary schools improve their English standard as Bahasa continues to take the lead? I have calculated the number of hours for English classes each week in primary schools of different language streams: In stage one: 240 minutes for national schools, 60 minutes for Chinese primary schools. In stage two: 210 minutes for national schools, 90 minutes for Chinese primary schools. The differences between the two are 180 and 120 minutes respectively. Under the new system, in stage one: 330 minutes for national schools, 120 minutes for Chinese primary schools; in stage two: 300 minutes for national schools, 120 minutes for Chinese primary schools. The differences between the two are 210 and 180 minutes respectively. Obvious enough, national primary school students' English command should be further enhanced under the new system. There are approximately 42 weeks in an academic year for primary schools. If we do some simple arithmetic, we should be able to find out how much of English lessons will a Chinese primary school student have to miss over a span of six years. These students, 90% of whom will proceed to a national-type secondary school in time to come, will have problem adapting to the new curriculum given their relatively poor English command. And then they have yet to encounter a brand new issue of switching to BM for science and maths! Chinese primary school students will only have a dimmer future ahead of them. Of course, they have an advantage over their peers: the ability to master three languages. But that is achieved only with a heavy price: They will have to learn extra hard!
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The Blogs 
learn to look at the bright side. the students from chinese medium primary schools will be extra clever if they can make it. sad to say, the children from SK will be very far behind and that is EXACTLY where UMNO wants them to be!!!
poor Bumiputras!!