Where are you and what have you done?
It is reported that about 25% of Singaporean Malays prefer to communicate in English while encouraging their Young to do the same. Such trend according to an expert will lead towards the eventual demise of the language in the republic separated only by Johor Straits from Malaysia.
Ironically, a nation originated from the word 'Malay' is losing its own lingua franca because of a brazen and sheer political will by one who claims to belong to the race and even heads the largest political party for 22 long years. The reason? English is a global and therefore significant tool to bring Malaysia at par with other countries particularly those developed nations in the West. While admitting that English plays significant role in bringing the country towards even greater heights the approach to glorified it is suspect.
Every adult and rational thinking Malaysians know the problem facing the younger generations. Their mastery and command of English is so weak making them 'unmarketable'. But the government's move to use English for Science and Mathematics is totally mind boggling and laughable since our students not only weak in English but also Mathematics and Science. How do we foresee that teaching and learning Science and Mathematics in a language foreign from theirs will achieve the ideal and sought after results? Anyone out there please enlighten me.
The results of the recent Primary School Achievement Test is highly suspect though the government claims that there's a slight improvement but again any rational thinking adults will doubt such claim since it is not backed by independent and unbias opinion of a third party. The Ministry responsible can easily manipulate and alter the results to make them look good to the public. Certainly I am not insinuating that the government is corrupt but to avoid suspicion they should done the same - getting an independent and unbias opinion through auditing the whole process to discard any suspicion.
While comparing or bringing the fate of the language in a country where the language is not even the majority or main spoken language is not proper but when comparing and looking at our own situation then we can see its significance. It is not too late for the government to rectify the situation in line with the provision in the Federal Constitution. Arguably, the government has invested millions in the programme but since its hurried inception 5 years ago , the results speak for themselves - students are still weak in Science and Mathematics as well as English!
The move by dailies to publish favourable opinions of the initiative is laughable and totally biased since the opinions come from urban students and teachers. The latter being civil servants are subject to uphold all government policies and therefore their opinion doesn't really count. While the former has long since familiar with English and therefore their learning of Science and Mathematics in English is not a problem. Since students are the clients and stakeholders in education therefore their views are certainly necessary. The move by the previous administration is a blatant disregard to the principle of democracy and viewed by many as having ulterior motive just by looking at the millions of ringgit contracts to supply the paraphernalia.
Perhaps the most glaring evidence of the low quality of the initiative is the conduct of the relevant minister of sending his offspring to oversea instead of enrolling them in the national education system. Since the minister and many other high profile figures do not really trust our own education system therefore how could we really believe in the system? Leaders are supposed to set examples for the people to see and emulate but their conduct reflects the opposite.
Bahasa, Jiwa Bangsa
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