This is what is behind the PPSMI probe. How Big can a Budget to provide enough Translation to let Bahasa Malaysians be Average informed of the World?

Had other fundamental improvement of Living been provided with sufficient budgets?

This is the answer of What goes Behind this PPSMI stuff!!

But what could that “huge Budget” be? How much it will require to Translate Sufficient Books and Information in the World to provide Bahasa Malaysians to be at least an Average informed people in the Word?

DO NOT BLEND POLITICS WITH EDUCATION!!
By the way, is Bahasa accepted in the UN community?

That is right but quite mildly put. The trained and better educated half of the population has rightly concluded that they are not welcomed in their homeland and have chosen greener pasture. The endangered species get the privilege to guard the crucial learning institutions, and they proved to be better than their students, generation after generation.

Education has always been looked upon to be the most important means to uplift the standards of living. Unfortunately for fear of competition, trained manpower of the wrong race has been prevented from taking their rightful place in the society. Over time, education institutions are treated as employment agencies, just like the government services. Since these institutions do not care about the outcome of their actions and input, the products, the standard of education in Malaysia naturally suffer.

Since the teachers are not equipped to teach, they would not want the students to veer beyond the textbooks. But curiously, we get straight A students so numerous that the government has a problem, it seems to choose base on merit in scholarship awards.

I struggle to convince myself that anything other than Bahasa Malaysia should be the medium of instruction in National schools. Are we sure the problems with the National schools have been correctly attributed? As a foreigner it strikes me that almost everything in Malaysia is ‘broken’ through incompetence and extreme self-interest. Even apparently successful private enterprises often seem to me to be nearing the end of a ‘lucky run’ having made their short-term fortunes at the expense of long-term problems in the society they operate in.

I’m not so sure that the problems with the education system can so easily be laid at Bahasa Malaysia’s door. I would have thought a greater reason for failing education standards would have been half a nation unable to have pride in their homeland because their homeland doesn’t want them, and retarded critical thinking skills through pervasive suppression of criticism. I don’t believe there’s any such thing as the ‘wrong’ language.

Before one speaks up his/her mind, it is better to bulge up one’s mind first. To accuse vernacular school as the root of poor English is rather uncalled for. With English schools bashed to junk yards in 1970, schools are no longer a holy temple to learn English. Today a student’s English standard is almost entirely ascertained by family background. It is immaterial the type of school you are attending. If you are a lucky bloke from English speaking family, with exposure from very young age, naturally you would have a better English standard compare to your peers who are not so fortunate. Of course exceptions do exist, there are students who against all odds to excel in English.

So next time if you happen to come across a student with good English, besides knowing the school he/she is attending, be prepared to go a step forward to check up his/her family background; English speaking? Parents’ education level?

Our future generations (especially the talented and smart ones) will not be in Malaysia if their parents have a choice. Most of them would be heading down south soon to Singapore. What a waste!!!

http://daddyparentingtips.blogspot.com/2009/07/tip-161-reading-in-both-languages.html

I can’t see why we cannot take 1 step forward to integrate the BM textbooks few years back with the current English science and maths text books. Its a lot of effort, but why move backward instead of forward. We can allow students to use either English or BM to answer in the exams as long as the maths and science principles are correct.

Some good will surely come out of the dialectics at work between both languages instead of choosing either one. We need new advancements. We need Malaysia Boleh. Not some power struggle between languages.

When will Malaysia advance and not hold on to race and language as stumbling blocks but embrace our differences as advantages?

I for one am not against the teaching of science and mathematics in Malay – the reason is simple: these two subjects put the language to use at a minimal level; It will not improve any student’s ability to express oneself in English to any great extent. Rather, it will only teach you the specific semantics of both subjects.

If the point is to improve the use of English, a far better way is to teach History in English. This one subject alone will do much to improve the student’s grasp of the language for not only will it put the language in use (the students necessarily having to express themselves) but it will encourage greater recourse to other resources (e.g. wikipedia etc) as reading is encouraged and cultivated.

With regards to our students being at a disadvantage outside of Malaysia, my personal experience has been that once one grasps the language, the conversion of malay terms to english terms is essentially simply. In fact, most Malay terms are so similar to english words (since malay scientific terms are more often than not derivatives (read: malay copies) of the english counterpart) that I really question the wisdom that learning the subject in english will help our students much at all.

What is more problematic for malaysian students is the ability to express oneself. When it comes to exams, we can compete with any foreign student. But when asked to speak up in class, it becomes a problem. We know the answer, but we can not put it out to the effect we desire. THAT is the problem and the real disadvantage.

Therefore, Uncle Kit, I ask you, please please push for history to be taught in english.

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However, the government has already changed from BM to English once. Notwithstanding my skepticism of its effectiveness, the problem is that once they’ve done the change they should not abruptly change it again. It shows how fickle they are and how thoughtless they are to all the students and teachers that are directly affected by this. Shame on you!

So we push for the use of Malay. How many books do we have in Malay to teach perhaps quantum physics or fluid dynamics? That is the main problem with using Malay as the medium. Unless, BM has truly matured as a language then it cannot be the main medium for education when it comes to sciences, esp sciences in the upper secondary and tertiary level.

You say the following to fortify your arguments about BM:

“Malaysia has successfully transformed itself to a modern and advanced Islamic nation and Bahasa Malaysia is also gaining more recognition in Islamic World.”

Why do you pray in Arabic and not in BM? Are the Malaysian religious authorities not proud of BM? Does the religion make it compulsory to do so in Arabic? If so then I am mistaken.

Malaysia has successfully transformed itself to a modern and advanced Islamic nation and Bahasa Malaysia is also gaining more recognition in Islamic World. It is time now we have to emphasize the use of our own language and not the language that used to colonise us. Please think about it. I respect the view of Tun Mahathir but it does not mean the whole UMNO has to agree with him.

HJ Angus … KETUANAN MELAYU is most necessary. Sorry to say. When you have that, it makes you ‘better’ than others (when you are really not) so that you can oppress or suppress the rest whom you unequivocally have labelled as basically second class. That is why it is being used! Basically, make others inferior so that you can be superior. Amazing huh? Many Malaysians still fall for it …

Every one of us likes mango and durian very much, but if the price of durian/mango is $20.00 per kilo, then how are we going to afford it. I suppose the tax $ you willing to foot up for English medium school is much lesser than amount charged by private/international schools, otherwise you would have been sent your kids to those schools instead of vent your anger here. The crux is there are not many willing and able taxpayers in this Land of Boleh.

Be sensible, do not waste time and hypnotized yourself. To have English school as pre-1970 is absolutely hallucination. It is better we wholeheartedly looking up for ways to uplift the standard of English in present school system both national and vernacular.

Education needs to be of quality and not the bickering of what language to be used. Also not to forget, we need GOOD teachers, at the moment that is totally lacking.

It may well be true that under certain conditions – for example having good teachers of Maths Science and English (in combination) – PPSMI may yield positive results.
However likely the conditions are not there and what we have is like what Emily Pratt said above – “Kalium Karbonat when added to Natrium Hidrokloride will kos exploshen” or what K1980 said – “Dua multiply dengan three sama with enam” and “ Fotosintesis is proses where cahaya sun, galian mineral, chlorophyll, karban dioxide dan water berinteraksi”

So they have to abandon PPSMI and try another way – but try what?

Alas If it were to just improve Malaysians’ proficiency in English – to enable them – to compete in the global arena, the solution would be simple : introduce the options as had up to early 1970s including English Medium schools (as I have mentioned in my earlier posting).

But they will not have it – why? Because if left to parents to decide, I suspect majority/market will opt to put their children in English Medium Schools. That will not only make those who opt for vernacular uncompetitive in market place but most crucial it will be direct blow to all aspirations/precepts of “Ketuanan” articulated by Kasim Amat in posting July 9th, 2009 at 15: 57.47. This is the absolute demand of the champions of National Language & Ketuanan that UMNO dare not offend and will have to compromise and yet try to delicately balance against the need to improve English esp amongst Malays students!

TDM’s PPSMI was to appease Ketuanan advocates by saying “hey, Bahasa is still given primacy but English may be limited to Mathematics and Science since we have to climb up techology ladder. As what Emily Pratt & K1980 point out, it does not work, so PPSMI has to be abandoned and in its place is Bahasa again in deference to demands of Ketuanan advocates but another compromise/delicate balance by way of “increasing the time allocated to teaching English, introducing English literature and language laboratories”.

The fact is whether PPSMI or this “New Deal” it has never been and never will be a full commitment to English improvement but in each occasion a half way half hearted compromise with political imperative of “ketuanan”, and that’s why its doubtful it will work.

The greatest tragedy here is that they (I mean here not just politicians in ruling coalition but those in Opposition as well) just can’t put Education and our Children’s future above political realities on the ground and the politics of Ketuanan. Not for the forseeable future anyway. Period. The voice of those like Kassim Amat has (over time) far from being diminished has instead got stronger and louder. Do I don’t see the situation will get better unless Najib could/dare, in small steps shove the Ketuanan agenda further and further to the background in favour of pragmatic imperative to commit more and more to English.