I refer to the Malaysiakini report Switch or we strike, warns education group and I cannot help but to vehemently disagree with the intended course of action by Dong Jiao Zong.

Evidently, the Malaysian education system is plagued with enough turmoil as it is: low quality standards, widespread graduate unemployment and political interference, being a few prime examples. Clearly, it does not need a mass protest to further wobble its already unstable situation.

Dong Jiao Zong’s agenda of having Mathematics and Science be taught in the mother-tongue language in vernacular schools will only add fuel to the issue of racial polarisation in the Malaysian education.

Malaysia will never prosper into a truly multi-racial society if communities continue to jostle over language issues when other countries have long settled with a universal mode of academic communication.

As for the language usage itself, many of us will have raised eyebrows regarding the effectiveness of Chinese/Tamil as an academic language. Are we preparing local students for employment in China or India?

Otherwise, I cannot fathom the logic behind this move. Could this be a ploy to gain publicity or is this merely a show of ignorance?

Dong Jiao Zong hopes to inculcate cultural awareness within the Chinese community, a noble cause indeed. However, the mere existence of vernacular schools and the teaching of the Chinese language in such schools is already a strong enough testament of their struggles.

Hence, why is there a need to teach Science and Maths in Chinese? What good is ethnic pride if the average Chinese youth does not have the competitive edge linguistically to vie for a respectable job?

English is, without a sliver of doubt, the lingua franca used in science and trade. Numerous complications may arise due to a student’s inability to comprehend English. Dr Mahathir wisened up to the potential dangers of globalisation and implemented his controversial system in 2003, hoping to give students the repertoire of linguistic skills necessary for success.

I joined the first batch of students to prowl into this ‘experimental’ domain in 2003. Having recently finished college, I can vouch for the necessity of Mahathir’s move as it has considerably smoothened my transition from secondary to tertiary education, where close to 100 percent of teaching is done in English.

I can only imagine the hardships my seniors had to face: the chore of having to translate Bahasa Malaysia/Mandarin/Tamil thought processes into English before putting pen to paper is not at all an appealing task.

As for parties who call for the abolition of Maths and Science in English solely based on the argument that there is no rise in English proficiency, here is something to think about:

Our predecessors wiped out 30 years of English literacy. What makes you think that a marked improvement can be achieved in mere 5 years? All the system needs is time. Eventually, Malaysia will reap the rewards of having a globalised society.