Education Minister should release professional  studies in Malaysia or other countries  which state that teaching mathematics and science in English from Std. One in primary schools  is more effective than  in Bahasa Malaysia or the mother-tongues and name the countries which use English to teach these two subjects from Std One

(Penang, Saturday): The MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik  said yesterday that the discussions of the Chinese-based component parties in the Barisan Nasional on the issue of the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools were “not for public consumption as it was best discussed outside the glare of the media”. (New Sunday Times)  

This is a most irresponsible and undemocratic sentiment, going against all the principles of openness, transparency and good governance which the Barisan Nasional government had professed, and the MCA President must be reminded that the question  at issue is not a private matter for him or his party, but concerns the education of the  new generation of Malaysians and the economic future of the nation.  

The Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had announced when attending the opening of  the Federation of Malaysian Hokkien, Hokkien Youth and Wanita Hokkien Associations delegates conference 2002 in Kuala Terengganu in the company of the Gerakan President Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik last Thursday that  all national-type Chinese and Tamil schools will not be excluded from the government’s move to use English to teach mathematics and science beginning next year.  

Can Liong Sik  explain when the Cabinet took such a decision, or whether the Cabinet had not made  any decision on it and that it was  the UMNO Supreme Council which took such a stand on May 11, resulting in the establishment of the special committee headed by the Education Director-General, Datuk Abdul Rafie Mamat to  submit a special report on the implementation of the proposal?  Or will Liong Sik maintain that he need not answer this query as  this is information which is “not for public consumption”?

Up to now, neither the Education Ministry nor the Cabinet has been able to make out a strong case  for the educational soundness of the  proposed switch in the media of instruction for mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools from Std. One.

In fact, the Education  Minister himself  had not been consistent about the objective of the move to use English to teach mathematics and science from Std. One in primary schools as he had been making  conflicting statements  – at one time saying it  was  purely to enhance the knowledge of students in the two subjects and that it was  not  a platform for them to learn English while at other times  claiming that it was to   enable students to improve their proficiency in English.

This confusion among the top Cabinet and Education Ministry circles is not surprising as  the Education Ministry has not been able to present a sound educational case to introduce such a move after some three months of the controversy – reinforcing the view that the move was  more politically-motivated than educationally-oriented.

If the objective of the move is to enhance English proficiency, it is a most ridiculous proposal as the amount of  English used in these two subjects are very limited.

If the objective is to improve the standards of mathematics and science, I challenge Musa to make public  the  professional  studies in Malaysia or other countries which state that teaching mathematics and science in English from Std. One in primary schools  is more effective than  in Bahasa Malaysia or the mother-tongues and name the countries where Englsh is not the medium of instruction in the education system which use English to teach these two subjects from Std One onwards.

The proposal to use English to teach mathematics and science is most inappropriate for Chinese primary schools in view of the consistently higher standards in these subjects in Chinese primary schools as compared to the other medium streams, including English primary schools before they were abolished in the mid-Seventies.  

In 1972, I had in Parliament asked the then Education Minister, then Datuk Hussein Onn, for the comparative results from the different  streams of primary schools for the Std. V Assessment Test in 1971, and the results for the Penang primary schools for mathematics and science were  as follows:  

Failure rates  for Penang primary school pupils in 1971 Std. V Assessment Test

                                                  Mathematics   Science

                                                         %                     %

National primary schools            37.90               35.61

Chinese primary schools            28.69               30.96

English primary schools              41.22               42.61

Tamil primary schools                 72.19               65.89  

Can Musa explain what is the  educational justification to use English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools  when  even three decades ago, when there were English primary schools, Chinese primary schools had better results in these two subjects when compared to English primary schools – with the Chinese primary schools in Penang scoring  71.3% and 69.1% pass rates in the Std V Assessment Test in 1971 as compared to 58.8% and 57.4% for English primary schools for mathematics and science  respectively.  

In the past three decades, the  Chinese primary schools’ performance in these two subjects had improved considerably,  nationally averaging  over 90% pass rate  for mathematics and over 80% pass rates for science in the UPSR, as illustrated from the following UPSR results for 2000 and 2001:  

Up to now, the Education Ministry has made no attempt to respond to the legitimate concerns and fears of parents and educational bodies that the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese and Tamil primary schools from Std. One  would lead to a decline in academic attainments in these two subjects – views shared by educationists like former University of Malaya Vice Chancellors, Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, Professor Dr. Syed Hussain Alatas and the President of Malaysian Islamic Science Academy (Asasi) Dr. Shaharir Mohamad Zain, as  studies worldwide have shown that the best way for  primary school pupils to master their subjects is for the knowledge to be  channeled through their mother-tongues.  

Ungku Aziz, in a recent interview with Nanyang Siang Pao, said that  use of a pupil's mother tongue is the most effective and direct way for a pupil of any race to acquire knowledge and to reason. A new concept or a new idea could be better understood by a pupil in his or her own mother tongue. This is because when people are faced with a complex idea, they naturally try to think about it in their mother tongue.  

Ungku Aziz said English is a comparatively difficult language and in  trying to use English to learn Science and Mathematics at the elementary level, pupils may run into problems arising from the use of the language.  

I call on the Cabinet on Wednesday to direct the Education Minister to prepare and  make public a report to present  strong case of the educational merits of the use of English to teach mathematics and science from Std. One not only for  Chinese primary schools, but also for national and Tamil primary schools. 

There is no disagreement whether among political parties in government and opposition, or in the Malaysian civil society, including Chinese and Tamil educational bodies, on the urgent need for a special programme to check the decline in the standard of English in schools and universities, and the Government should be seeking a national consensus instead of trying to force a political showdown on the issue.  

Instead of focusing solely on the proposal to  use  English to teach mathematics and science from Std. One as the only means to raise English proficiency in the primary schools, the time has come for the Cabinet to think of more effective ways to raise the standard of English not only in Chinese primary schools, but also for national and Tamil primary schools to meet the challenges of globalization, liberalization and ICT.

(4/8/2002)