PPSMI? Scrapped?? WHAT???!!!

Just thought I would make some time to give my penny's worth regarding a current issue in Malaysia - The abolishment of PPSMI. Before I continue any further, for those international readers of my blog who are asking, "What is this PPSMI?" PPSMI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPSMI) was a program to learn science and mathematics in English, initiated by our past prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, in 2003. I was a strong supporter of the PPSMI because of its objectives. the PPSMI policy was implemented based on the government’s concern on the nation’s human capital development towards achieving the standard of a developed country, as well as an early preparation to compete in the era of globalization. With the realization that the field of science and mathematics is mostly in English and also that the command of English that Malaysians have cannot be compared to a majority of people in this era of globalization, Tun Dr. Mahathir realized that we were on the losing end. In order to move forward, PPSMI was proposed, tabled, and accepted.

Worrying news happened recently. On Nov 3, 2011, the Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the abolishment of the PPSMI policy was final (http://malaysiakini.com/news/180393). This brought a whole range of different responses to the issue and I would like to add mine. I will base my response on my rebuttals on the Government's response towards the responses in this article they released: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/10/5/focus/9631026&sec=focus

One of the leading factors contributing towards the abolishment of PPSMI was the results of the different surveys and researches made by a number of universities and from the results, deemed PPSMI as flawed. Firstly, they found that only 4% of Mathematics and Science teachers used 90% or more of English in the teaching and learning of the two subjects. According to this results, "a majority of them used a mixture of Bahasa Malaysia and English. More often than not, the teachers had to switch to Bahasa Malaysia in their teaching because students could not understand their lessons in English." Other studies include one conducted by a group of educationists from the Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI) that revealed that 70% of Form Two students found it difficult to learn Mathematics and Science in English as well as the study done by a Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) professor that concluded that PPSMI hampered students’ ability to understand Mathematics and Science concepts, hence resulting in their poor performance in the two subjects. I think for the reason stated above, my question would be how intensive and extensive was that survey? Does it really portray the student population in Malaysia as a whole? Let's use the statistics of the Form 5 students in 2010. The number of students each year can be approximated to around that number of students. In 2010, 467,970 students sat for the SPM (The article regarding the analysis of the 2010 SPM results can be found here). If we approximate the number to about 450,000 students each year, the 70% of Form Two students as set forth by UPSI would amount to approximately 280,000 students. Does this mean that the study by UPSI was done surveying a student number from different states, schools, race, etc. amounting 280,000, if not more? If not, how can they accurately say that 70% of the students find it difficult? If they only did the survey on about 2000-4000 students (which amounts to only 0.5-1% of the approximated student number) from schools in the same state, then they should not conclusively say that the 70% of Form 2 students represents the 70% of the students nationwide. If the survey is based on what the teachers think of parents think without directly asking students, then the results of this study is even more unreliable. The same applies for the UKM professor. On what basis does he conclude that the reason students cannot understand science and mathematical concepts is the language? Again, how extensive was his survey? How was that study done to begin with? Did students do much better when science and maths was taught in Bahasa Malaysia as compared to learning in English? Besides, this is only a temporal solution because when students graduate from high school and decide to pursue a career in the science or maths field, they will not be able to compete with the rest of the world of students from other nations as they will be learning things built on the same concepts but in English. They will struggle not only to understand what they are studying but to also learn again the English terms of the concepts they learned in High School (for example, sodium as compared to natium or potassium as compared to kalium, or even concepts like sublimation as compared to pemejalwapan). Imagine this scenario: students are supposed to have their basics before going into university as the university is not going to teach students basic science again but rather build on them. Imagine the student enters class and the lecturer uses terms like "sublimation". The student then has to put in extra effort to understand what the lecturer is saying and relearn all the new terms. If you say that they are able to put extra effort when they are in university and still be able to excel, and if the study is accurate that students are unable to understand the lessons taught in English according to the PPSMI policy, wouldn't you say that this is a contradiction? Why can't the students use the same effort when they are, say, in Form 1 or Standard 1 to master these concepts in English rather than wait until the work and assignment load gets heavier in university and then only start trying to learn the concepts in English. Imagine how competitive our students will be when it comes to presentation time. In fact, one statement made was that the current generation of scientist, technocrats, lawyers (why was lawyers brought into the picture? They need science and maths??), accountants and other professionals are products of our National Education System where Bahasa Malaysia is the medium of instruction in schools. Hey, take a moment to look. How competitive are our scientist and technocrats and mathematicians as compared to the rest of the world. Even if there were some who are competitive, what is the percentage of these competitive ones as compared to those who just cannot because of the language barrier?

Another thing I found quite hilarious was this: "In relation to this, the Education Ministry has taken comprehensive measures to improve our students’ command of English through the Strengthening

English Language (MBI) policy. We are improving the methods of teaching and learning of English in schools, increasing English hours and hiring quality English teachers, including from abroad, to help our students be proficient in English. We believe that there are many ways to improve English ability among our students and we are working very hard to realise this objective." First they say that it is difficult to teach Science and Maths in English because students are just unable to cope and follow, no matter what methods it may be and therefore resulting in teachers who have to mix Bahasa Malaysia in their teaching. Then, my question is, will increasing learning hours, hiring quality English teachers and implementing other methods guarantee a better proficiency of the English language when it failed for PPSMI?

I am no educationalist neither am I an authority in the field of education, but based on logical and rationale thinking, I can safely conclude that English is the international language today. It is the language that business talks are done in, contracts are written in, new inventions and research papers are written and presented in. In today's world, for Malaysia and Malaysians to be competitive, for the world to even begin to take Malaysia seriously, mastery of the English language is a definite must, more so for the area of Science and Maths. I personally have met a head of Mathematics department from a local university that will not be named here. He has a PhD in Mathematics yet is unable to converse in basic English. What more write papers in English? Though it may be hard at first but I believe that one day, once the learning of science and maths in english has become the social norm, students will be able to cope with studying in English. Even as I write, there are students who in primary school came from a vernacular school but did their high school in a national school (I personally know a number of them) yet they are able to switch from studying in their vernacular language to not only being able to pass but excel in high school even though it is in a language that they are not proficient in. For my batch of classmates, I had classmates from Chinese school who were not really proficient in Bahasa Malaysia yet scored in Bahasa Malaysia as well as all the other subjects even though they were taught in Bahasa Malaysia. A lot of them are today scholarship students sent overseas to further their studies. Is PPSMI that impossible? I guess the answer is a definite no. Are we putting down Bahasa Malaysia? Definitely NO! PPSMI is just preparing Malaysian students to be on the cutting-edge of their field, preparing them to be able to compete with the rest of the world. If students are able to switch and excel from Mandarin medium of instruction to Bahasa Malaysia, I see no problem with Bahasa Malaysia into English. And if we start them young, at the beginning of their formal education, it will not be that much of a problem. I think what it takes is a paradigm shift and a willingness to learn. Then only can Malaysia stand up proud and be able to compete with the rest of the world. Then only will Malaysia truly be progressing, not stagnant or even regressing. For this reason, I hope and pray that PPSMI will be retained and the MOE will look into ways of making the implementation of PPSMI smoother and more effective rather than to just abolish it. This, is my cry, alongside others, crying for PPSMI not to be abolished.

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