I read Masali's letter (published in malaysiakini on Jan 20) that contained comments from Cikgu Komando and I was immediately reminded of the essay I wrote " How Do You Say 'Fotosintesis' and 'Geometri' in English? " It was as if this letter was a response to the questions I had. Also the letter confirmed my hypothesis of public response towards this new education policy.

It is a given that parents and teachers agree that this is an uphill battle that seems impractical; it is a band-aid for the larger problem of the overall education policy. But what strikes me as most pointed and well observed is that Cikgu Komando feels much concern that this policy is an experiment at the schoolchildren's expense.

Policymaking nearly all the time is an exercise in experimentation. There is no getting around that especially given our political system.

As I have argued in my previous essay about the subject, this experiment is a necessary consequence of Malaysia being a part of the modernisation process. It was relatively less painful for us from the period of independence to the mid 1980s where we could modernise and grow at an average GDP rate of 4.5% per annum from 1970 1990. We had the luxury of natural resource endowment to put us on the autopilot for growth. We felt pride in our advancement and for a while, we thought that we too could become an Asian Tiger.

But we have hit a brick wall. I believe that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi put it succinctly by deeming Malaysia as having a "first world infrastructure with a third world mentality". We may have first world infrastructure. But what's inside? Is the infrastructure just a house of cards? With the goal for first world status comes amongst other things the necessity to compete. Also we need to end the tidak apa , laid back mentality.

But can we do it? This is exactly what Teropong Negara in her/his letter (published in malaysiakini on Jan 20) referred to when s/he asked, "How and on what basis are we going to thrive and survive in the globalised world?"

Stiff competition

The Science, Math and English combination is a crucial way to help us compete, survive and even thrive globally. Other countries such as France, Germany and Hong Kong too have a similar approach. If these wealthier countries are willing to step up in the same direction, we certainly have a lot of competition on our hands.

Things will become potentially worse for us when the Asean economic integration is completed. As a single market, can our labour force compete with Indonesia and Thailand? What proposition do we have to offer? We cost more than they do but we're not significantly higher up in terms of the value we offer. So does this mean we can compete with the added value labor force of Singapore?

This is why we need to experiment. We can't soften the blow for our schoolchildren. There will be winners and losers.

Let me try to explain why such great responsibility rests on the tiny shoulders of Malaysian children. In economics, there is a challenging concept called Total Factor Productivity (TFP) that I believe is still best explained by Paul Krugman. But I'll give it a try. Most people are familiar with the concept of Labour Productivity. This is why we send all children to school, they become literate, try to finish secondary school and then join the work force. Given the number of hours in a working day, these people will produce goods and services that have a ringgit value. Hence this concept only measures the contribution of labour. No other factor of production is included. Over time, we as labourers end up doing the same old thing, day in day out. We just trudge along at a stable, zero rate of real growth.

This is where the concept of TFP comes in. TFP measures how well labour and technology (not forgetting capital), go together. It measures all factors of production and not just the labour factor. To find a great combination of labour and technology requires pushing the discovery and use of knowledge to new frontiers. When this combination is found, there can be real exponential growth. But we can't do this when there are weaknesses in Science, Math and English.

Future generation

Examples of great combinations of labor and technology include mapping the genome and stem cell research. Consider too a non-scientific, less technical platform such as Singapore carving out a competitive position in Asean by hosting the Botero art exhibition throughout the island state. This required using its knowledge in logistics, banking, insurance and tourism in a different and creative way.

So at the end of the day can we create anything new and completely cutting edge that will give us more economic growth? This question can only be answered by the future generation and through experimentation. Success and failure need to be identified and separated. We cannot hide losers and pretend that everyone is a winner. I think that ironically it is the film The Incredibles that explains it best.

If we can't bear to sacrifice our children to this experiment, then we need to sit back and accept that we can do no better than we already have. We will then have to be content with where we are in the world. We may have to think of a different way to measure progress.

Perhaps we can be happy with improving our figures of life expectancy and child mortality. Perhaps we can be happy protecting our vernacular from the threat of the lingua franca . But can we really be happy when our children are still confronted with an offer of RM1,600 a month for an entry-level engineer? Wasn't this the same nominal level of pay 10 years ago, not including the time value of money?

It isn't in our feisty country's nature to sit on our laurels. We are deeply invested in the modernisation process. There is no turning back.

TREENA WU is an economist and public policy analyst pursuing her PhD. She is currently residing in New York.