I was quite ecstatic to find out that Eric will soon be learning the Arabic language in school. I don’t know Arabic, but I know how to read and write in Jawi, hopefully that’s a jump start for me to help Eric with his studies. It’s always good to be able to learn a new language; many of my friends who can speak Arab are earning money like crazy. We shouldn’t underestimate our children’s intellect and the ability to learn especially when they’re young.

Which brings me to the topic about teaching Science and Math subjects in English in Malaysian schools. I’m not so clear about the current stance by the government, but it sure will be a sad day if and when the government decides change its policy to not teach them in English anymore. I don’t understand the hullabaloo that’s going on about this. The excuses I hear from people that wants English as a medium be stopped are irrational at the least.

The most popular and laughable excuse is that teaching Science and Math in English is not nationalistic. Is talking in Malay the only way we maintain our nationalist spirit? Does that mean we can’t use Chinese, or Indian or Kadazan language to learn these subjects, for fear that we are not nationalistic? It doesn’t make sense. Talking in English doesn’t make one any less of a Malaysian. People who use this excuse doesn’t understand the word nationalistic. Being less nationalistic is when someone uses the national anthem Negaraku to humiliate people of our country.

And then there’s this talk among “intelects” and “psychologists” that analyzes trends of the primary schools, saying that more students are being expeled because of the increasing failure rate of students as a result of the English medium in Science and Math. So… the decision to expel a kid is made by the English language, not the school itself. I see. Idiots. If the school notices a high failure rate, why not remedy it by giving extra tutorials and talking to the parents on how they can improve the child’s education? Believe it or not, I heard that many schools prefer expulsion because they didn’t want their passing % in the national school exams decrease. Shame on those schools.

Of course, there are those rural folks. Because they’re so rural, they don’t speak English well enough and therefore chances of failure are high. Understandable. This requires the creativity on the school’s side by making English learning more fun. Music always works. I’ve seen a few fellow friends of mine who’ve managed to combine English and Math for effective learning, and my engineer cousin-turned-teacher who did it for his Science subject. We have to prepare rural children to use English. We also talked about how the Internet could bridge the gap for rural community to learn more and faster about the world around us. However, without exposure to English, it will all be in futile.

I want teaching Math and Science in English to continue. Importantly, keep teaching the teachers so that they can improve on their language skills, or even better, draw more talented educators. Give this policy more time. 6 years is not enough. The more exposure, the better.

Teachers and parents, take note.