PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, July 8 - Malaysia is to abandon teaching
maths and science in English, saying that far too many children
from poor rural areas were being failed by the programme.
The decision to start phasing out English medium teaching from
2012 has been backed by the government and Malaysia's main
opposition parties, despite concerns that using the national
language, Bahasa Malaysia, will undermine competitiveness.
Malaysia has said recently that it wants to attract more
high-value investment in areas like banking and finance, industries
that are global and typically demand good English.
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Instead of teaching maths and science in English, a policy
started in 2003, the government will double the time spent on
English lessons for primary children and increase that for
secondary school children by half.
It said it would hire an additional 14,000 teachers to teach
English as a language.
"I would not say it was a complete failure, but it did not
achieve what it was supposed to achieve," Education Minister
Muhyiddin Yassin told a news conference on Wednesday.
A recent report from Morgan Stanley showed that Malaysia's
tertiary enrolment and completion ratios were six and seven
percentage points behind the average countries with a similar level
of income per capita.
That leaves it at a disadvantage as it seeks to tap into foreign
investment which is increasingly using countries like China and
Vietnam which have larger domestic markets and bigger reservoirs of
cheap labour.
Neighbouring Singapore split from becoming part of Malaysia and
retained English as the primary language of education. The city
state has emerged as one of the richest nations on earth with a per
capita income of $51,649 in 2008 while Malaysia's is $14,225, based
on 2008 data.
Critics said that the changes to use Bahasa Malaysia would not
achieve the desired effect of enfranchising the rural poor or of
boosting English language skills and said the move was largely
political, aimed at appeasing the Malay majority.
"What has not occurred to the authorities is that the education
system requires very competent teachers," said Khoo Kay Kim,
emeritus professor at the University of Malaya's history
department, adding that politicians were driving the change due to
their personal agenda.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was educated in an
English-medium school in Kuala Lumpur and later in a private school
in England, while opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was educated at
the elite English-speaking Malay College.
Khoo also warned that the move could increase divisions along
racial lines in this country of 27 million people where 55 percent
are ethnic Malays and there are sizeable ethnic Chinese and Indian
minorities.
"There is an emphasis on separation, not integration, today,"
Khoo said.
--Reuters