The government's rushed proposal to reintroduce English language instruction for several school subjects may backfire and compromise standards because of poorly-planned implementation, said an opposition leader today.

DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today questioned if the government had fully studied all education aspects of the new policy to ensure that the teaching of maths and science in English will not result in a drop of standard in these two subjects without substantially raising the standard of English among students.

The furore over the reintroduction of English-medium schools was sparked off when Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced last week that the government was willing to reintroduce English-medium education if the people wanted it.

The proposal was later watered down to reintroduction of English-language teaching for mathematics and science after the Umno supreme council objected to bringing back English-medium schools.

Result of controversies

According to Lim, the change in government policy on education was the result of several key controversies in the past month including reports that 44,000 bumiputra graduates have not been able to find gainful employment partly due to their poor command of English and that the decline in the standard of English is undermining the country's economy and competitiveness.

The opposition leader also said despite the prime minister's initial view that the public should be consulted on the matter, the decision to implement partial English instruction in schools had been made without a proper public inquiry.

"The Umno supreme council can disregard the views of other Barisan Nasional component parties, but it cannot treat the views of the Malaysian people with contempt [by] inviting them to give their views on [English-medium schools] and then shutting out the people's views in a matter of days without any serious attempt to receive and consider public feedback," added Lim.

The opposition leader also criticised the Education Ministry for claiming success of their merit-based university admission system introduced last year without using a fair assessment method.

Cannot convince people

"For close to a week, the Education Ministry has been unable to convince the people that the system and formula to match matriculation results and STPM grades were not like comparing an apple with an orange," he said, adding that the government had also failed to convince the public that it had not created a "merit-based system without merit".

Lim claimed that the public lack of confidence in the ministry is due to the government's "lack of political will to take drastic measures to check the 30-year decline in the standard of English".

On May 10, Musa revealed that the selection system based completely on merit for entry into public universities introduced since last year has resulted in 68.9 percent bumiputra students being offered places instead of 55 percent as practised under the quota system.

However, the minister came under fire from several quarters for failing to justify how the ministry can claim to having a meritocractic system since the intake of bumiputra students in universities is based on their performance in either matriculation or STPM examinations, while the intake of non-bumiputra students is based almost entirely on their performance in the STPM examinations.

While both matriculation and STPM studies are open to students who have passed their SPM examination, the former caters solely for bumiputra and has a one-year syllabus while the latter caters for all ethnic groups and requires two years to complete.

Not racial issue

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Lim also rapped the Education Minister Musa Mohamad for alleging that those who question the formula used to match the matriculation results and the STPM grades were trying to create a racial issue.

"Cabinet ministers should not create racial issues by equating demands for democratic accountability and transparency with 'racial' pressures," he said.

Lim said it was "virtually impossible in the past six days" to gain access to higher education department director Prof Dr Hassan Said, despite Musa's assurance that anyone unhappy with the matter could refer to the ministry for clarification.

"Musa had committed a serious lapse of ministerial responsibility by not ensuring that such a full explanation on the merit-based selection system, and in particular how the results of two completely different examinations were matched," the DAP leader added.