Call on Barisan Nasional Chinese-based parties to take a clear, decisive,  rational and reasonable stand that unless the Education Ministry can prove and guarantee that the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools from Std. One will not lead to any  drop in standards, there should be no further discussion about switch in medium of instruction

(Penang, Saturday): The failure of the Chinese-based political parties in the Barisan Nasional yesterday to reach a consensus on the use of English to teach  mathematics and science  in Chinese primary schools from Std. One next year was the top news  in all electronic and printed media.  

As the New Straits Times pointed out in a  “tongue-in-cheek” manner, the only agreement reached by the four parties – MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and Sabah Progressive Party – was on the appointment of MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik as the spokesman at the press conference after their abortive meeting in Putrajaya.  

The Malaysian people, and in particular the Malaysian Chinese community, find it impossible to understand why the Barisan Nasional Chinese-based parties could not reach a decision on the issue after more than three months of  the controversy where they had three meeting among themselves.  

Liong Sik said studies on several “necessary things” have yet to be completed and there is the need to look “into the world situation, in multi-ethnic societies and other countries”. 

There can be no good reason for such indecisiveness or procrastination in taking a stand on the issue – and I call on the Barisan Nasional Chinese-based parties to take a clear, decisive,  rational and reasonable stand that unless the Education Ministry can prove and guarantee that the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools from Std. One will not lead to any drop in standards, there should be no further discussion about  the  switch in medium of instruction for these two subjects.  

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 Chinese and English  primary schools for mathematics and science were  as follows:  

Pass  rates  for Chinese and English  primary school pupils in 1971 Std. V Assessment Test for mathematics and science

From these data on the 1971 Std. V Assessment Test, out of the 11 states, Selangor  was the only state where the English primary schools had a marginally better result in mathematics  but not in science – while in all the other states, the Chinese primary schools scored better than English primary schools in both subjects.  

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 82% pass rates for science in the UPSR, as illustrated from the following UPSR results for 1999, 2000 and 2001 on the pass percentages:    

As no one, whdther the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad,  Education Director-General Datuk Abdul Rafei Mamat or any educationist had been foolhardy enough to give an assurance or guarantee that using English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools from Std. One would result in higher student performance in these two subjects or that there would not be any drop in standards, the proposal to teach English in these two subjects from Std. One in Chinese primary schools should be dropped altogether.

The same test should apply to the question as to whether English should be used to teach these two subjects in national and Tamil primary schools – and unless a clear-cut assurance and guarantee is forthcoming from Musa or Abdul Rafie that there would be no drop in standard, the proposal has not stood  the test of being an educationally sound one.

This does not mean that there should not be radical educational changes to enhance English proficiency in schools and universities – which is a completely different issue from teaching mathematics and science in English from Std. One onwards.

While the three-month failure of MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and SAPP to reach a decision on the issue of using English to teach mathematics and science in the Chinese primary schools from Std. One is most disappointing, there are two other bigger disappointments: –  

• The failure of the Chinese-based Barisan Nasional parties to explain to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister,  the Education Minister and all the other UMNO Cabinet Ministers that Dong Jiao Zong, the Chinese community and parents and teachers in Chinese primary schools were not being chauvinist, extremist, antediluvian, disloyal,  anti-national or even anti-Barisan Nasional  in opposing the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools from Std. One as no one has been able to present a convincing case as to its educational soundness; and

• The irresponsibility of certain leaders of the Chinese-based Barisan Nasional parties to aggravate the situation instead of explaining the true picture to UMNO and UMNO Youth leaders - as when recently some  UMNO leaders were giving stern warnings about “tough actions”  like the use of Interrnal Security Act  to be taken against those who oppose the proposal, Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik was fanning the “flames” by his vehement  denunciation of “language and education extremists”.  

Penang Chief Minister and Gerakan Vice President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon said in Penang yesterday that Chinese educationists are not “extremists”.  Can Tsu Koon then explain who are the “language and education extremists” specifically referred to by Keng Yaik – whether  Keng Yaik was only referring to Dong Zong Chairman Quek Suan Hiang and Jiao Zong Advisor Sim Moh Yee, the two who had been attacked by name? 

The Chinese-based Barisan Nasional parties have a duty not only to make a   right,  rational and quick  decision to reject the proposal to use  English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools from Std. One, they also have a duty to convince UMNO leaders of their misconception and misjudgment about the anti-national and disloyal motivation of those who oppose  the switch in medium of instruction for these two subjects.  

Are the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers, for instance, prepared to collectively raise at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting the most  unfair and unwarranted attacks on Dong Jiao Zong by the Prime Minister in Terengganu yesterday – and to explain to the Malaysian people  and the Chinese community after the Cabinet meeting that they had succeeded in convincing Mahathir that such attacks were wrong, misguided and should never have been made?

(17/8/2002)