KEEMANXP Dot Com

Suddenly, I feel rather angry with fellow Malaysians who just refuse to think properly before involving themselves in acts like demonstrating on the streets or protesting for an unclear reason. The trend in Malaysia now is that whenever you are not satisfied with something, bring it to the streets. We all know that won’t help! The latest is the demonstration involving the "Anti-PPSMI" (PPSMI = Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English) movement (Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI). It’s sad when I looked at those demonstrated, most of them are teenagers, that in my opinion, knows nothing about the PPSMI programme. They were perhaps persuaded by some portions of the NGO and political party members to go out and join the crowd.

Picture courtersy of The Star Online

In true academic sense, if you’re doing this for the benefits of our younger generations (students), then a more proper way could have been done, like a special dialogue with the Education Ministry or Teacher Unions. And since the Ministry has confirmed that the decision on whether to continue or discontinue the PPSMI programme will be made by end of this month, why on earth do they need to bring this issue to the streets? Will that help solve the problem?

PPSMI is the teaching of science and mathematics in English and NOT the teaching of English in science and mathematics. The reason why English is used is not  solely to improve students’ English proficiency but to give them better access to the scholarly world related to science and technology.

Some bloggers are trying to claim the failure of PPSMI by spreading the reports prepared by US Department of Education on The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007. The sad thing is that, they spread it without reading it (or perhaps they can’t understand the content since it’s entirely in English and they prefer to read it in Bahasa Melayu).  The pool of data collected from the TIMSS 2007 report is merely involving Form 2 students. We all know that those in Form 2 were just purely exposed to science and mathematics in English in Form 1. So for me, it’s an unfair comparison and unfair to said that PPSMI is the cause of the drop of performance.

If you look at the chart shown in the TIMSS report, Singapore is among the countries that top the list, and they are using English in teaching these two subjects as well. Why are they doing well and not us? It’s not the PPSMI programme that caused this, but other factors such as teachers’ readiness as well as willingness to fufill their responsibilities to teach these two subjects well whether or not it is in English. Give the programme another 5 years, and you’ll see tremendous results. On the another notes, there are hundreds of research studies out there that proved the implementation of PPSMI has its positive effects and why simply look at those that give negative results? Even if we revert back to BM, I can guarantee that 80% of the terms are direct translation from English.

Clearly, this is not an academic pursuit, it’s a political pursuit to highlight some other sensitive issues involving the status of Bahasa Melayu as the national language. For me, despite learning most of the subjects in English, I still honor Bahasa Melayu as the national language. I talk, write and even sing in Bahasa Melayu. And to say I am not patriotic just because I learn/teach science and mathematics in English is purely unacceptable! Jangan marahkan nyamuk, kelambu yang dibakar!

P/S: let’s hear from science and math teachers, the students, and those involve in science and technology (in universities, in companies)….and NOT from the "unrelated groups" (you know what i mean…)