Another Flip-Flop (PPSMI)

Finally, we had reverted back to Bahasa Malaysia for Mathematics & Science. We just gave up after just 6 years after the implementation of PPSMI(Pengajaran & Pembelajaran Sains & Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris). To me, the decision to revert is plain mindless & suicidal for our country.

How do the government arrive with this decision? The decision to change back to BM is actually based on the statistic that the government has done. The statistic shows that the rural area students & teachers are not showing obvious sign of improvement in the command of English & so decision was made to scrap the PPSMI's policy. But the main problem is, is English the real problem for all these?

Back in the 1970's, when we start to 'nationalise' our education system by changing the language of teaching from English into BM, the same problems that the current teachers were facing also applied to the teachers at that time. They face the same language problems & they overcome it. That proves that language is not the problem so why can't the teachers now do the same?

Is it because teachers now lack the spirit, enthusiasm or just lower quality then the teachers in the past? As far as I'm concern, most teachers are not that bad. They are willing to learn, willing to sacrifice for the sake to teach & give their best to our leaders of the future. So, what's is the problem? Student?

I don't think the problems came from the students & it is also not the problem whether the students are from rural or urban. Student, especially those in primary, pick up languages like a sponge & if we nurture & guide them well enough, they will not be any problems for them in the languages they had learned. As time passes, with more student using English, we will have good environment for the uses of English & slowly our English level will somehow increases.

So, what is the actual reason for the sudden change? No deny that it is political motivated in order to get the support from their own party & component parties' members & also defenders of mother tongue NGOs to consolidate the leadership position of certain individuals but why use education as one of the pieces in the political chess?

Education is the core for the progress of a country, for this 30 years, we saw our universities ranking dropping & quality of the student lowering which ultimately contributed towards our country slowing down progress in economy & governance. All these can be pointed towards the politicising of our education system by the government.

Do you want to know how bad is our education system condition? From what I had seen & heard, the condition of our education is quite bad that most high ranking officials & rich people are more willing to send their children to be educated in international school or foreign country's(eg:- Singapore, UK, USA) schools rather than our own school & university. The most irony is when the same bunch of people actually ask the rakyat to study & trust our country education system while they themselves actually doing the opposite. Isn't this prove that our education system is very wrong?

Well, if we really want to revamp the whole system & make Malaysia a more competitive country, then we have to send a strong signal to our leaders. We can't continue to be silent or be 'vocal' only during the election time. We have to do it now! Yes! NOW! Tell them what we want, tell them we can't afford another 30 years of bad policy anymore! Time to change!