A MP has called the Ministry of Education's (MOE) “sudden” switch from locally published English textbooks to two Eurpoean ones “extremely questionable”.

Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari complained the new books cost far more than the local ones, and worse, are written with its home country in context rather than Malaysia and is therefore not appropriate.

“Unfortunately, the sudden policy decision by MOE has raised much consternation and concern, especially with regards to its rushed implementation.

“Firstly, the new imported textbooks are far more expensive than existing ones, costing RM38.80 a copy for Super Minds and RM38 a copy for Pulse 2.

“Based on current enrolment figures of 450 thousand students in year 1 and 400 thousand students in Form 1, the total cost to provide textbooks for each child in those two cohorts would amount to RM33 million.

“In contrast, locally published textbooks currently used cost less than RM10 a copy,” said Zairil in a statement today.

He cited two MOE circulars on Aug 16 and Sept 12 this year respectively, instructing the use of the Super Minds textbook published by Cambridge University Press for Year 1 and 2 students, while Form 1 and 2 students will use Pulse 2 by Macmillan.

The existing KSSR (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah) and KSSM (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah) textbooks will no longer be distributed to students, he said.

Zairil also questioned the high price of the books as they are still printed in Malaysia.

“The prohibitive cost of these books is also questionable as these supposedly 'imported' books are not actually imported, but printed locally and supplied through local publishers Pan Asia Publications for Super Minds and Desa Fikir for Pulse 2.

“Are these books then purposely labelled as 'imported' in order to justify the high price paid for them?” he asked.

Amish in Malaysia

The MP also said the new texts have not been adapted to the local context are instead purportedly copied directly from the originals and therefore have “strong British context with zero local content”.

For example, said Zairil, there is a page from the Form 1 textbook that talks about an Amish teenager from Mississippi, USA who goes on a visit to London, and asks students to refer to a British Channel 4 programme to answer questions in the textbook.

“Obviously, the use of such content makes no sense (to Malaysian students) and has not been thought through,” he said.

Zairil, who is DAP parliamentary spokesperson for education, science and technology, said local cultural references should always be used to aid learning and teaching.

“In this case, the extensive use of foreign cultural references will only confuse students and teachers.

“In the end, the learning and teaching of English will be even more difficult,” he said.