A parent C.W. Leong today sent me a petition he had started in his son’s school in Subang Jaya canvassing support for parents to be given the option for their children to be taught mathematics and science in English in primary and secondary schools, reporting good response.
This is Leong’s message to all parents who are against the abolishment of teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI):
We are the silent majority. Our mistake is, we did not lobby loud enough in the first place. This is a signature campaign to appeal to the Minister of Education, to review the decision to abolish PPSMI, MOST IMPORTANTLY AT THE SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL Give parents the option to choose English. This campaign is by parents concerned for their children’s education. Many parents are doing something similar to this in schools all over the country. The more action taken, the better will be the results. Please forward to as many parents as possible, and get as many signatures as possible. Then send the petition to the address shown in the pdf attachment. If you feel like handing in personally to the Ministry, by all means do so.
I have received the pdf file he attached as follows:
This is a signature campaign initiated by parents who support the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI). This is an appeal to the Minister of Education, to review the decision to abolish PPSMI, most importantly at the Secondary School Level. Give Parents the option to choose English. Please sign the petition attached, get as many signatures as possible. Send the cover letter together with the signatures to the Minister of Education as soon as possible. You may also wish to forward copies of the petition to Tun Dr. Mahathir who strongly advocates the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English. Send to: Y.A.B. TAN SRI DATO’ HAJI MUHYIDDIN BIN MOHD. YASSIN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF EDUCATION Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, Level 4 West Block, Perdana Putra Building, Federal Government Administrative Centre, 62502 Putrajaya, Malaysia Forward to: YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana No. 1, Jalan P8H, Precinct 8, Putrajaya, 62250 Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia Y.A.B. TAN SRI DATO’ HAJI MUHYIDDIN BIN MOHD. YASSIN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF EDUCATION Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, Level 4 West Block, Perdana Putra Building, Federal Government Administrative Centre, 62502 Putrajaya, MALAYSIA 13 Julai, 2009 Yang Amat Berhormat, Per: Rayuan Pengekalan PPSMI Kami, ibu bapa ingin merayu kepada pihak Kementerian Pelajaran supaya mengkaji semula keputusan memansuhkan PPSMI. Kami berharap pihak kementerian akan mengekalkan PPSMI, terutamanya di peringkat sekolah menengah. Pertimbangan daripada Yang Amat Berhormat amat dihargai. Sekian, terima kasih. Yang ikhlas, Bersama ini dikepilkan tandatangan ibu bapa yang menyokong rayuan ini. Ibu bapa yang menyokong Pengajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris Parents who support Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English Petisyen Rayuan kepada Menteri Pendidikan supaya mengkaji semula keputusan memansuhkan PPSMI, terutamnya di peringkat sekolah menengah. Petition to appeal to the Minister of Education, to review the decision to abolish PPSMI, most importantly in secondary school.
The parental campaign for option for their children to be taught maths and science in English in primary and secondary students should be respected by the Cabinet Ministers, government and MPs.
I am disappointed that the Cabinet yesterday failed to have the political courage to admit that it had made a bad decision the previous week as to come up with the world’s most crazy educational system where students in Form 4 in 2012 will have to switch to Bahasa Malaysia for mathematics and science in the last two years of secondary education, after nine years of learning these two subjects in English – again to switch back to English for the next five or six years for pre-university and tertiary education!
Under this crazy education system, Chinese primary school students who join Form 1 this year after six years of maths and science taught in the mother tongue, will learn these two subjects in English for the next three years, and again forced to switch to Bahasa Malaysia in medium of instruction in Forms 4 and 5, before switching back to English for another five or six years in pre-university and tertiary education for maths and science.
If there is a competition to devise the most exquisite form of mental torture of Malaysian school-children, those who devise such a crazy educational system of multiple flip-flops in medium of instruction in maths and science will win the gold prize!
Since former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir started a poll on his blog a week ago for visitors to vote whether they supported or opposed the Cabinet decision to teach mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia, as of 3.15 pm today, 96,182 had voted with 86% (82,944) opposed to the move and 14% (13,238) supportive of Bahasa Malaysia.
The reasons which have been given by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to justify the Cabinet decision to replace English with Bahasa Malaysia as medium of instruction for mathematics and science are most wobbly and totally unconvincing whether in logic or educational principles.
Muhyiddin acknowledged that Mahathir’s vision for PPSMI was more to enable Malaysians to have a better grasp of scientific, technological and mathematical knowledge, but pointed out that “we do not have the means to do it”. (New Sunday Times 12.7.09).
Muhyiddin is wrong. Malaysia has the means to do it and more to join Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan to become the world’s top nations in maths and science – provided we have a Cabinet of broad-minded and far-sighted leaders who are prepared to modify its disastrous PPSMI decision last week, viz:
- Abolition of PPSMI from Standard One from all national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools to revert to the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction for these two subjects.
- This argument does not apply for children whose home language is the English language or a total immersion education system is adopted with English as medium of instruction. For this reason, there should be option for parents to decide for their children to be taught in English for these two subjects both for primary and secondary.
- Use of English as medium of instruction for mathematics and science in secondary and tertiary education.