Malaysian Education System - From Bad To Worst

PETALING JAYA (The Star) : Social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye has defended the use of English in the teaching of Mathematics and Science.

“Why question it now? I am surprised that there are groups who are questioning the policy after it has been in place for six years.

“There is nothing wrong with the policy, although there might be weaknesses in its implementation,” he said when contacted yesterday.

More than 2,000 people marched to Istana Negara last Saturday to hand over a memorandum to the King asking for the return of Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science.

Lee said the argument that teachers were not fluent in English was not justified as it was the execution of the policy that needed to be improved.

“What needs to be done is to address these weaknesses, not the policy,” he said.

He also said global competitiveness was anchored in the proficiency of English, and that the policy should not be regarded as a threat to Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.

“The teaching of Mathematics and Science in English is not a show of disrespect to the national language.

“For the future of our country, we should take steps to improve the standard of English. It’s a good thing for Malaysians to be bilingual.

“Our education system should also not be politicised. It’s not good for the progress and the future of our nation,” he said.

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In my personal view, Mr Lam Thye was only half-right. He only spoke about the weak implementation of teaching English for science and maths. Actually, we have a weak education system, full stop.

When we stifled the education system by banning students from thinking that was when our education system started going downhill. The Japanese learn in Japanese, the Thais in Thai, the Indonesians in Indonesian, and so on. If you want to go to France to study you need to first learn French. Has using languages other than English ever been a problem for non-English speaking countries?

However, in these countries I quoted, they allow students to think. In Malaysia, we do not allow the same. We even have laws that make it a crime for students to get involved in politics.

Students must be allowed to think. They must be allowed to dissent if they wish to. Only through activism will students develop. Telling students what they can and cannot think does not help them develop. This is where the problem lies.

They can speak Swahili for all I care. But as long as they are allowed to think and can think for themselves then they can develop into the type of people we would like them to. But to treat students as if they were children would mean they would grow up to become children.

Innovation can’t be stifled. By stifling the freedom to develop means we are stifling growth itself. And that is why Malaysian students can’t develop. It is not about the language. It is about what we have not allowed them to become