PPSMI DILEMMA

for the past 6 years, our new generation of children or little siblings hav the chance to learn maths and science in english topping the normal english classes. fro the past 6 years also, our government are trying their best to stick to this policy despite all the objections from all level of rakyat. whether it is from the lesser educated to the most educated and proficient in english.

many says that what is the fuss is all about? why are there a lot of people against it while at the surface, it will benefit our child? and there again we will hear a lot of argument which is against this policy.

i have a little brother and nephew whom already in this system since day one of it. my impression about them is, they are no better than me to compare with when i was in the primary school. eventhough they are currently studying english in three different subject, they still cant speak the language. not that i expect them to speak fluently but at least simple english. while watching the cartoons, they change the language to bahasa. they dont want to watch programme in english and they cant answer question in english. in exam, they prefer to answer in bahasa for maths and science subject.

in my place here in kuala nerang, i hav heard one senior teacher who said that their pupils cant follow the learning process in english. worst, they cant even speak the standard malay language. a lot of the words come from the local slanga:) can you expect any better from them?

ironic. what do you expect from someone who learn the bahasa for the past 6 years? do you expect them to be as average as many of us?

i see this system is a failure in developing a multilingual society especially in our malay community. when the system is not good enough, what will happen to our child then? obviously they will lacking behind more and more. why cant our people be like the chinese and thais who stick to their mother tongue in giving all the basic knowledge? they are obviously performing better than us

for me, if they are really serious in making sure our child is more competitive in terms of language, it is more important for them to make sure that our english learning system stress on communicative skills. dont teach our child just to know which is present, past or the future tense. teach them how to speak the bahasa from day 1. do you think our child has no capacity to learn the language faster than the system? i do believe that if we switch the current syllabus into the more communicative oriented syllabus, our child will do better.

and i will not surprise that they can learn more than 1 bahasa in their school days. our child is bright enough to learn 2 or or more bahasa than this. see how the chinese can make sure their child speak 3 bahasa. it is pity that our child language development was stagnant to learn only one additional bahasa. and our system make them confuse and lack behind.

the irony is, even the government is not confident with their system. see how they provide a malay version of question in upsr? if the system is good enough, why there is any need for bahasa there?

for me, i totally agree with the current argument that we should go back to use bahasa in maths and science.