news feature

The controversy over the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English seems to have ended yesterday following a "political decision", in Education Minister Musa Mohamed's words, made by the Barisan Nasional supreme council.

Front-page headlines on Chinese newspapers this morning happily shouted that the two subjects for Year One in Chinese primary schools will continue to be taught in mother tongue.

This interpretation will certainly find favour with the Chinese-based parties in Barisan Nasional since it is an acknowledgment of a 'victory' they have scored for the community they represent.

The 'compromise' reached by BN, however, came at the expense of the seven-year-olds who will be starting Chinese primary schools next year.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recognised the increased workload and pressure on students when he was asked yesterday if the Malay community might ask for a bilingual approach to Maths and Science in response to the modifications allowed in Chinese schools.

"It depends on whether the Malay parents want to burden their children. If we add more things to what we already have, it may be too much for us to shoulder. That will cause losses to us," the Umno president had said.

Examined twice

To begin with, under the compromise, Year One pupils in Chinese primary schools will have to study altogether 10 periods of Maths (six in Chinese and four in English) and six periods of Science (three each in Chinese and English).

Mahathir had also said the pupils would need to sit for two papers for each subject during examination, one in English and the other in Chinese.

Apart from that, the total (half-hourly) periods per week will be increased from 46 to 50, an extension by two hours weekly.

This means Year One pupils have to attend longer school hours than Year Two and Year Three pupils as well as their peers in national and Tamil schools.

Currently, Year One to Year Three in all primary schools national or national-type have only 45 periods, whereas Year Four to Year Six have 48 periods per week.

The Year One subjects in national-type schools those using either Chinese or Tamil as the teaching medium are Chinese/Tamil (15 periods), Bahasa Melayu (9), Maths (7), Moral Education (5), Physical Education (3), Music (2), Art (2), and weekly assembly (1).

Another optional period is used for a subject decided by the head of school. Some Chinese schools use this for computer classes to promote IT literacy among pupils.

Big controversy

Early this year, the government had agreed to allow the national-type schools to teach English as a subject in two periods in response to their repeated requests over the years to teach English from Year One instead of Year Three as is the present case.

[National primary schools, those using Bahasa Melayu as medium of instruction, have scheduled eight periods for English for Year One since the mid-1980s following an education revamp then. Other subjects are Bahasa Melayu (15 periods), Math (7), Islam (6), Physical Education (3), Music, (2), Art (2), weekly assembly (1), and optional subject (1).]

With the introduction of a new language subject, the total periods per week for Year One in Chinese and Tamil primary schools was to have been increased from 45 to 46 next year.

Then came the government proposal to introduce Science in Year One in all primary schools.

Almost none of these schools opposed this because they were told that the three periods for this subject, though taken from the 15 periods of Bahasa Melayu, Tamil, or Chinese depending on the type of school, will still be taught in mother tongue.

Then came the big controversy when the Umno supreme council proposed in May that Maths and Science be taught in English for Year One, Form One, and Lower Six.

It was the first compromise on the language issue; Mahathir had earlier proposed to bring back English-medium schools to improve English proficiency among students, but his idea was rejected by his colleagues in the party which came up with the first compromise.

First compromise

There was immediate responses concerning the implementation in primary schools from various education and ethnic groups.

They questioned the feasibility of teaching Math and Science, both knowledge-based subjects and the latter being a new subject, in a language which Year One students are unfamiliar with.

BN Chinese-based parties in particular were hesitant to support the language switch in Year One, knowing that mother tongue education is an issue the community holds dear to its heart.

But at the time, the parties could not afford to say a firm 'no' to the Umno-led ruling coalition for fear that they may be associated with education groups which have been labeled as 'extremists' and chauvinists by Umno leaders.

It was within this context that the compromise was achieved at the two-hour BN meeting yesterday.

Education groups such as Dong Jiao Zong, the collective name for the United Chinese School Teachers Association Malaysia and United Chinese Committees Association Malaysia, are bound to raise two questions surrounding the compromise.

Two questions

One, is the syllabus for the two technical subjects the same in both languages?

Two, if yes, what is the purpose of having seven-year-olds repeating the same content in two languages? And if no, will this give additional study pressure to them since they already need to study in a bilingual system?

Chinese political leaders such as MCA vice-president Ong Ka Ting have described the additional hours for Year One as 'bonus' for Chinese primary schools.

Whether this is a blessing or a curse will ultimately be borne by the hapless children who are the guinea-pigs to this policy.

For earlier indications of its success or failure, however, we can look at the number of new enrolment into Chinese primary schools and more importantly for those who came up with the "political decision" how the Chinese-based parties will fare in the next general election.