DPM: Why The Poor English

Now, I may be late to the party but I have been working on this article since the 9th of this month. Yes, I'm a slowpoke due to the fact that I want to make sure that its not a piece of crap which makes no sense at all. Now, straight to business.

On the 7th of this month, our Deputy Prime Minister who is known as Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin stated that students in Malaysia still have a poor grasp of the English language despite 13 years of primary school, secondary school and matriculation. He also said that the Ministry of Education is going to look into the possible factors which are causing these problems. As usual, the possibilities include incompetent teachers and unsuitable textbooks. Sounds common, right?

What actually rang my 'bullshit alarm' is the fact that he also stated that the English language will not be ignored and put aside. Now, please enlighten me, Mr. Deputy Prime Minister. How can you say that you are stressing the importance of mastering English as a second language when our government(and you too) is changing the language used to teach Mathematics and Science from English to BM? If anything, you are only giving the students more excuses to put aside English. The mainstream media already has enough Malay in it, thank you very much. Oh, and did I forget to mention the fact that the websites which are visisted by the majority of the Malaysian student body can also be accessed in BM?

If the government is going to use the 'teaching these subjects in BM will increase the percentage of passes in SPM' excuse, then we are only heading backwards in terms of education. If it is true that BM will result in more students getting passes in their SPM, then we should be sticking to English when it comes to mathematics and science-related subjects. Why? Because if they can pass these subjects in BI, we would have proven the fact that our students are capable of more things and can achieve even more in the future. That being said, most of the stuff that is taught in colleges and universities are taught in English, not BM. To change the language that is used to teach these subjects that will be essential when it comes to college/university is to force everyone to suffer even more in the future. They will have trouble catching up with their studies as languages are best taught when the kids are still young. Therefore, changing the medium of instruction from English to BM will only bring more problems than you bargained for. Oh, and please do not at this rate, tell me that our students are not capable of passing these subjects if they are taught in English because that sir, is a poor excuse. I won't deny the fact that my BM is crap. Despite the language barrier, I was recently able to achieve a dramatic boost in my History(which is being taught in BM) from 20++% to 74% within 2 months. No, seriously. This isn't some bullshit I cooked up so if you want to have a look at my papers(censored of course), feel free to drop me an E-Mail. So anyway, if I can pass a subject that is being taught in a language that is foreign to me, then I don't see why the rest of the Malaysian student body cannot at least get a C in mathematics and science-related subjects when it is being taught in English. It is not a question of our students' capabilities, but rather a question of whether they are willing to work for their results. If we are going to make high school certificates easy to obtain, then we might as well abolish the SPM system and immediately give everyone an A for every subject.

Schools are supposed to train Malaysians to be ready to face the future and its challenges. They are supposed to train us to not take things for granted, but to appreciate it. So tell me, Mr. Deputy PM. How are schools training us to be the above when you are making things easier for them in the wrong way? By teaching these subjects in BM, you are only encouraging the student body to slack off and forget about English. Teaching this subjects in BM will also lead to the next generation of students who are better at BM to take education for granted even more.


So please la, Mr. DPM. Use your brains already. No matter how much you stress on the importance of a language, it will still come down to whether the students are willing to take the time to learn it or not. However, I have to applaud you for getting something right for once. Most of our English teachers are actually incompetent. No, seriously. Notice that a lot of English teachers(especially in Prim. school and Kindergarten grade) are pronouncing the word 'vegetable' the incorrect way. They would pronounce the 'vege' like they are pronouncing the word 'veggie'. And then, you have those who pronounce the alphabet 'R' as 'A-Re' instead of 'Ar'. Next, you have those who pronounce 'V' as 'U-Vee'. The list goes on and on. The textbooks on the other hand, are not incompetent nor is the syllabus unsuitable. However, they certainly do have the potential to make us yawn which is why the MoE should consider having a look at the Singaporean books.




Gretz,
MY.PacmanZ


NOTE:

SPM = Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, which is of course, the high school certificate in MY.
BM = Bahasa Melayu, or Malay. Because they just had to put the word 'language' before the 'race' to make it seem like it is 1337.