Recently, the teaching of science and mathematics in English has drawn flak from various quarters of society and has become a controversial topic. As I am hardly one to shy away from controversy, here's my bit on it all.

Personally, I think that it is interesting to note that the vast majority of the argument against the teaching of science and mathematics in English stems from this notion of 'protecting the national language' or 'protecting our culture'. I find it interesting because I personally see these notions of 'heritage' and 'culture' as mostly unrelated to the topic at hand.

I think that these concepts and arguments have been drawn into the issue inappropriately, to make the argument against the teaching in English to seem stronger than it actually is. In other words, I think people are against the policy for the wrong reasons.

I think that there are two reasons why people are really against the teaching of science and mathematics in English. The first is because they have experienced first-hand that this adjustment from Malay to English is not going well - in other words, they are finding it hard. And of course it is hard - I think most educators can agree that the manner in which the switch was made was not the best.

The second, is that these individuals prefer speaking and communicating in Malay. The notion of speaking a language other than what they, or the generations before them, were using is an odd proposition. It's hardly surprising that such individuals would be hesitant to support the shift.

It has also been pointed out by some that one does not need to master English to be successful. This is only a half-truth, and therefore, a half-lie. What it should read is that 'one does not need to master English to be successful in certain areas, but in others, he/she will probably benefit from doing so'.

You see, detractors of the shift to English happily make the 'mastery of English equals success' connection, because it is a generalisation that cannot possibly hold up upon closer scrutiny. The truth is that it is language fluency, or some measure of communication skills, that makes success (in any area - think about it) possible. English does not hold a monopoly over the act of 'achieving success'.

But if we take the global context into account, it is clear that being able to communicate in English is a huge boost. In the global context, it does not really matter if you can speak or write in Malay. This may be a painful truth, but it is true nonetheless - Malaysia is the only place in the world where Malay is spoken. That's 25 million out of 6 billion people. If my math is right, that is 0.4% of the world's population.

Now, that does not mean that the other 99% are masters in English. What it does mean though, is that English is a language that is far more spread out than Malay. This will always be the case. More than that, unless Malaysia finds itself somehow taking over a significant part of the world in the distant future, the usage of Malay is not going to spread beyond our borders. All over the world, however, English is going to continue to spread.

There is a principal in behavioral therapy, an approach in causing desired change in individuals, which I think is relevant here. This principle is basically that ‘You want to set people up for success’. Basically, it means that it is always good to set up a system that is designed to allow people to succeed, and indeed does do so as often as possible.

If we look at the place of English in the global context, I see the teaching of science and maths in English as a positive step in this regard - we are setting ourselves up for success. You can whine and gripe about how much you hate English, or how much you love Malay, but the facts of the global context remain. The better we can speak English, the better off we are globally.

Some individuals have pointed out their experiences of studying overseas, and how they did not need to have mastery of English to succeed in a foreign university. While that may be true, it is besides the point, because the aim of the switch to English was never to create masters of the English language, but to improve basic fluency.

Think about it - if mastery was the goal, we would have switched the subjects that actually required demonstrating one's mastery of English to succeed - like history, for example. The goal has never been to place English one step above Malay - it has clearly been to place English higher than it was before. There is no logical reason to look at the issue as a zero-sum game.

And as someone who has experienced both sides (as teacher and a student) and in both local and foreign universities, believe me when I say that the observation is always the same - people who can communicate better in English tend to get more out of their study experience (in English-based institutions, of course).

There is also something important here that many people seem to have overlooked. If the cultural and/or heritage arguments are true, that is, if the switch of teaching maths and science in English is having a negative effect on the status of the national language, shouldn't that mean that our children's fluency in Malay has been decreasing?

Shouldn't this, and only this, be the fuel in these arguments against the teaching in English? What do the scores from school exams tell us - are more people failing Bahasa Malaysia now than ever before?

Detractors of the shift who sprout the 'heritage' and 'cultural' sentiments would be better served to colour their arguments with these kinds of facts. My guess is that they cannot - because they are non-facts. Citing the stats will instead reveal something else - that more and more people are failing English than ever before.

What we need to do is to set up a system that encourages better fluency in English rather than doing the exact opposite (switching everything back to Malay) which is s a set-up for failure in the global context.

I do think that the switch was not made in the best manner possible. I don't think the government would readily disagree with that notion. But surely, we must all agree that:

1. English fluency is at an all-time low in a world that requires us to be fluent in the language and that;

2. Nobody is implying that we should be speaking English as our first language in the first place.

The policy to switch maths and science to English was certainly made in the best of interest of the long- term. What we need to be voicing out are our specific problems with adjusting to or fully implementing the policy.

If children from rural areas are finding greater difficulties in making the switch, what can be done? If teachers themselves are not fluent in the language, what can be done? These are the issues that should be raised, because these are the real barriers to success.

Sentiments of culture and heritage, while they do have their place, are beside the main point - the main point being, how can we set Malaysians up for success?