During the 2010 budget debate on the Education Ministry late this evening, I called on the government to respect the Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) and to empower parents to decide whether they want their children to use English to teach/learn mathematics and science in primary and secondary schools.
I reiterated the DAP stand that maths and science should be taught in the mother tongue or home language in Std. One and spoke on the decline in mastery of the English language by Malaysian students, all the way to the university level.
The government had been talking about the importance of ensuring fluency and proficiency of English students, especially university students, but little had been achieved going by the employers’ complaints about the poor English command of graduates.
This has undermined Malaysia’s international competitiveness as English is an international language and a language of competition in the world arena.
As many parents in the country have expressed their wish that English be used as the medium for mathematics and science, I called on the Education Ministry to declare its stand on PAGE’s call to allow parents the choice of deciding whether their students in schools should use English to be taught mathematics and science.
I also called on the Education Ministry not only to allow Chinese and Tamil languages to used chosen as SPM subjects in a 10 + 2 formula, but to ensure that both subjects are recognized officially for scholarship and other official purposes.