NUTP urges Malaysians to support language switch

comments     YS Tong     Published     Updated

Malaysians must look towards the future and support the government's decision to use English to teach Science and Mathematics in schools starting next year, said National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general N Siva Subramaniam today.

"If they want their children to be of world-class standard, they must support the move. They should know what is good for the future," he told malaysiakini .

Siva said there was a lot of criticism against the Education Ministry's decision but the people should be realistic about the era of globalisation that they are living in.

He pointed out that there is an "educational gap" between school children in urban and rural areas.

"Well-to-do families can send their kids for tuition. Their English is good but what about the poor families? Let's be fair to them and cater for everyone in the country," he said.

However, Siva said the switch is just "one way to improve English among the students" and the ministry should look into other comprehensive ways of improving the language as well.

He said NUTP met with ministry officials regarding the matter early last month and agreed to the proposal then as on behalf of "all teachers".

He added the union representing 106,000 members in the peninsula told the ministry to ensure a smooth and effective implementation of the plan such as giving enough emphasis to the use of terminology.

"We can't just talk about switching the teaching medium to English. We have to be honest and make sure that there is good implemenation. There are headmasters who can't even speak proper English now so we have re-train the teaching staff," he said.

Enough assurance

When asked, he agreed that students may face difficulties in coping with their studies once Maths and Science are taught in English.

"But they will never catch up if they are not made to learn the language," he said.

On claims that the change may affect the characteristics of vernacular schools, Siva said there was enough assurance from the government regarding the existence of Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

"They are definitely here to stay. In fact, the existence of Chinese and Tamil schools is something that we can be proud of," he said.

"Politics must be set aside when we talk about education for our children. Let's be professional and mature about it," he added.

It was reported today that the Education Ministry is in a negotiation process to bring in qualified teachers from India to teach Maths and Science next year.

A task force has also been set up to translate textbooks into English and a pay rise has been promised for those qualified to teach the subjects in English.



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