Recently, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the current Prime Minister of Malaysia decided to change the medium of instruction of maths and science from English to Malay. This is supposedly because the usage of Malay in maths and sciences will instill patriotism for Malaysians as well as for Malaysians to better grasp the Malay language.
This is not a good decision to me. Being a Malaysian Chinese, I am personally for the introduction of English as a medium of instruction of the sciences. However, I also understand where some of the Malays are coming from in arguing that the introduction of English will diminish Malay language and culture. This is the cultural and emotional aspect, and lets not kid ourselves and say the mother tongues will remain intact under the onslaught of the English language. There is no debate over whether proliferation of English, an international prestige dialect, will cause mother tongue usage to drop - any sociolinguist worth his salt will tell you yes, given enough time. It is simply a trade off between protecting the traditional cultures and changing enough to survive in this world.
It is becoming quite apparent, even to the hard-line advocates of racial politics, that Malaysia does not have much of a choice. The economic outlook is bleak. With the dip in oil prices and various economic flops like the huge deficit of Malaysian Airlines, Malaysia is looking for ways to change its economy. The Iskandar Malaysia project is one way; but teaching the rakyat good English can be another way to bring in foreign cash without having banking on the negotiations with Singapore . Much of the controversy that surrounded this policy at its inception was not whether to implement the policy, but rather how to go about doing it. Most of the qualms raised by the Chinese community has been about the abrupt nature of the original policy. After all, forcing a student without prior knowledge in English to learn the Sciences and Mathematics in English in primary one is hardly sound pedagogy. The introduction of the original policy has not been smooth-sailing, with many students struggling to cope; but the teething problems eventually passed and it had gradually became a way of life as previously Chinese speaking parents started to pick up English so that they could help their children master the language. Now that the rakyat had been through those pains, the policy is changed yet again, meaning yet another few cohorts of students would have to go through the problems of transition.
In a nutshell, I think that this policy of teaching math and science in English should not be scraped. This concludes my argument.
My blog prompt: View on Dr Najib's decision to scrap the use of English to teach math and science by 2012
Posted by Teow Yong Zhen on Sunday, July 12, 2009There can be many stands to this topic, but I for one chose to think that progress is neccesary for the society, however, too much progress might in turn do more harm than good.
I will first argue that progress is beneficial for society. If society has no progress since the olden days, we will still be wearing clothes made by animal skin, we will still have to go around hunting if we ever hope to fill our stomach and we will still have no education. Everybody will be outdoors, either hunting for food, growing vegetables or looking for a suitable place to stay. Do we want that? Of course not, therefore progress is neccesary for our lives to be more comfortable, and also to be more convenient.
Secondly, I will explain why too much progress will do more harm than good. Too much progress, might harm the environment. For instance, for the society to progress, we have to have land. And where can we get land? Cutting down trees is one solution. However, cutting down trees will result in global warming. Besides that, trees also help to purify the air, without them, the air will be very dirty.
In conclusion, progresscan be good, and can also be bad for the society. Progress is neccesary for the society, but too much progress might in turn become harmful, with that, I end my speech.
