Their "strange" accents, pronunciation and expressions made most of our students remark caustically in their mother tongue: "What exactly are they talking about?" My heart cries out for schoolchildren who have to change horses in midstream because of the policy change. It would not be easy for most of them to adjust unless they have rich parents who will pack them off to international schools or to schools down south. However, the government can and should soften the impact of the policy change by allowing students to continue with the old policy until they have finished their secondary education.
Mong Yoon Weng writes: My thoughts go back to the time when we had American Peace Corps English teachers in some of our schools in Malaysia
MATHS & SCIENCE: Govt must soften the impact
2009/07/17
MONG YOON WENG, Seremban
THE die is cast. The government has finally decided to revert to Bahasa Malaysia in the teaching of Mathematics and Science after six years of experimenting with hapless schoolchildren.
Is it a wise decision? The parents who responded to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's blog think otherwise. They represent hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren caught in the educational policy change without a chance to exercise a choice of their own.
The government has spoken. But will they rue their decision in years to come? Only time will tell.
Adding a few extra periods a week to teach English together with English Literature and other language components will not really help to enhance the already poor standard of the language in our schools unless we have the determination to succeed.
Bringing in native English language teachers will only bewilder our students further. My thoughts go back to the time when we had American Peace Corps English teachers in some of our schools. Their "strange" accents, pronunciation and expressions made most of our students remark caustically in their mother tongue: "What exactly are they talking about?"
My heart cries out for schoolchildren who have to change horses in midstream because of the policy change. It would not be easy for most of them to adjust unless they have rich parents who will pack them off to international schools or to schools down south.
However, the government can and should soften the impact of the policy change by allowing students to continue with the old policy until they have finished their secondary education.
