English School In Sabah and Sarawak

If BM and vernacular national-type schools allowed, why not English? 

By: Lan Boon Leong 

IT WAS reported in the press recently that the Education Ministry is sticking by its decision to abolish the PPSMI policy of teaching and learning Science and Mathematics in English.

This means that the two subjects will be taught solely in Bahasa Malaysia in national schools, and solely in Mandarin or Tamil in national-type schools.

Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said he and many other academics believe the two subjects need to be taught in the student's mother tongue.

Unesco, in fact, advocates mother-tongue education for all subjects because studies have shown that children learn better in their mother tongue, that is, in the language they first learn to speak.

However, mother-tongue education, although desirable, will make national and national-type schools even more ethnically polarised than they are today.

Moreover, there are many Malaysian children of diverse ethnic backgrounds - Malays included - whose mother tongue or first language is English. But there are presently no English-medium national-type schools to accommodate them. These children are academically disadvantaged compared to their peers whose mother tongue is Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin or Tamil.

The solution to these two problems - ethnic segregation and linguistic inequity - is obvious: the government needs to add English-medium national-type schools to our national school system to complement national schools and Mandarin-medium and Tamil-medium national-type schools.

These schools will clearly not be attended solely by English-speaking Malaysian children.

Many parents of children whose mother tongue is not English would also send their children to these schools because they understand the importance of English for their child's future.

English-medium national-type schools will, therefore, have a much better ethnic mix of students than their Mandarin or Tamil counterparts and national schools, and thus be able to foster ethnic harmony unlike the other schools.

Furthermore, children whose mother tongue is not English who attend these schools should generally be more proficient in English than their counterparts who attend non-English-medium schools.

The benefits of English-medium national-type schools, which are vital to our country's future, are crystal clear. So what is stopping the government from establishing them? It is not difficult to do so - we could start simply by converting some of the former mission schools to English-medium national-type ones.

If you are a Malaysian parent in favour of the establishment of English-medium national-type schools, please vote at www.surveymonkey.com/s/NKRJVDH. You could also help to campaign by sharing the link to this article via email, Facebook and Twitter, and joining PENS (Parents for English-medium National-type Schools) at www.facebook.com/groups/PENSmember/.

If we do not push for English-medium national-type schools, they will never be established.

But if our collective voice through votes is loud enough, there is at least a possibility.

Vote and campaign for your children's future!

Sources: Forum Daily Express - 2/10/2011