Political Expediency or Policy Flexibility?

EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA
This blog is the personal thoughts & opinions of the writers on the state of the
Malaysian education system, both private and public, the resulting products of
the system as well as the job market in relation to fresh graduates.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Political Expediency or Policy Flexibility?
5 years after the start of the policy of teaching Science and Math in English,
it was recently announced that the UPSR exams for Science and Math would
continue to be in English, BM, or in the vernacular language of a student's
choice i.e. Chinese or Tamil. My gut reaction to this policy is one of
befuddlement and confusion. I was imagining me explaining this policy to some of
my American friends. So, Science and Math are taught in English in Malaysia, my
American friend would ask. Yes, I said, but exams in these two subjects can be
taken in BM, English, Chinese or Tamil. So, what's the point of teaching these
two subjects in English, my American friend would continue. I don't know, would
be my honest response!
You can read about this issue in various Star reports - here, here, here, here,
here and here.
Is this decision an indication of policy flexibility on the part of the Ministry
of Education because some students still would not be able to handle exams in
Science and Math in English? Or rather, is this political expediency on the part
of the Ministry and the Minister, Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, so as not to offend
the Chinese politicians in the MCA as well as politicians in UMNO, and to a
certain extent, certain segments of the voting population as well?
I suspect that it is the latter rather than the former. Furthermore, I take this
as an indication of the failure of the Ministry to successfully implement the
policy of teaching Science and Math in English. The excuse that some students in
the rural areas still cannot cope with taking these two subjects in English is
plainly laughable in that these are the same students who have been taught these
two subjects in English for 6 years! The same excuse, hence, is also not valid
among those in Chinese primary schools!
The decision not to have an 'English only' UPSR exam for these two subjects
sends a signal to teachers in rural areas as well as those in Chinese schools
that they can 'revert' to teaching these two subjects in BM and Chinese (and for
those in Tamil schools to teach in Tamil). As far as I know, there's no
'monitoring' or 'policing' mechanisms in schools to ensure that teachers
actually teacher these two subjects in English. So, if students still have the
choice of the language in which to take these two subjects at the UPSR level,
wouldn't it be 'easier' for teachers in rural areas and in Chinese schools to
teach these two subjects in a language which they have a better command in,
presumably BM and Chinese?
While implementing the 'English only' policy would have some short term
consequences in that the scores in some of these 'vulnerable' areas might be
affected, I fear that the medium to long term consequences would be greater. I
wouldn't be surprised if in 2 to 3 years time, an announcement is made that the
policy to teach Science and Math in English would be stopped because it was
found that it had not achieved its objective of improving the standard of
English.
I think this would have been a hard decision to make politically but I think the
Minister should have put his foot down and fend off the critics and the
naysayers. While some may criticize the efficacy of the policy of teaching
Science and Math in English in the first place, I think that to give this policy
a fair chance to succeed, it should be taken to its logical end, which is to use
only English for Science and Math exams at the UPSR level. By allowing students
to choose their language of choice to take these two exams at the UPSR level is
to doom this policy to failure as teachers and students 'defect' to learning
these two subjects in their own language of choice.
Labels: Science and Math
posted by Kian Ming at 11/04/2007 10:25:00 AM
2 Comments:
Anonymous said...
Nothing common here......our government is known for not using the brain when
considering anything....
To quote Harry Lee...."Let's start thinking about it now."
11/04/2007 12:33:00 PM
Charis Quay said...
To be really cynical you could say that the language of the exam doesn't really
mean anything anyway. Even when we had Malay medium only for all secondary
schools, people in rural areas are often teachign in 'vernacular' or even
dialect. *shrug*
11/04/2007 01:17:00 PM
educationinmalaysiablog
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