Friday, July 10, 2009

And the verdict is...

That Maths and Science will not be taught in English beginning 2012. This will be a huge sigh of relief for a number of people, while others will lament a lost opportunity. Well, it has been said often enough and I guess I'll be saying the same thing that's on a number of people's mind: be ready for changes whenever a new Education Minister takes office. It's been proven time and again.

I remember when Anwar Ibrahim used to be Education Minister since I was in seconday school then. He was the guy who introduced that silly idea of starting the schoool academic year in December. Then, it was reverted to its original start in January when the next minister came in. I don't remember what Najib did when he was Education Minister after that as I was already in college, so that doesn't count. When the non-politician Musa Mohamad took over, English for Maths and Science was introduced. When Hishamuddin came into office, it was the introduction of a compulsory but non-examination subject called Civics and Citizenship in 2005. And now we have Muhyiddin with the scrapping of the teaching of Maths and Science in English. Oh, and the talk is he plans to introduce subjects like grammar and composition and English literature as well. And that's in addition to the plan to increase the number of teaching hours, too!

While I'm not against change, but when that change is not calculated carefully and not planned with a long-term eye, it can only be described as haphazard and will ultimately be detrimental to the students and the teachers who have to face more headache and (in this case, potentially) more time doing even more paperwork.

It really makes me wonder where exactly it is the education of our young minds is heading...

Eventhough teachers may rant, complain, and whine all we want, but at the end of the day it just boils down to one thing:

"Saya yang menurut perintah."

Sigh.

8 comments:

Mas Light said...

Punya kick tu last statement.

Anyways, I can't turn back time to experience maths and science in english *sigh.

Unknown said...

it's very dissapointing really this whole deal.. like you said the policy changes after each new minister. if the changes is an improvement, it's fine but this latest change is a step back into the stone age. i've seen too many graduates, some with Master's degree who could not speak an ounce of proper English and lose out on good jobs. Senang sija bah, demand sija tu govt kasi buka lebih byk govt jobs, for e.g. more Teachers (esp. English) and let these people who DO NOT actually want to become teachers fill these critical vacancies... woe be my beloved country... :(

carolchs said...

Saya yang menurut perintah.

How true.

Sigh.

Nick Phillips (15/03/1967 - 04/11/2022) said...

I'll just echo what Carol said in her post.

Sad.
Very sad.

Perry R. Lim said...

maslight: it doesn't matter anymore. no one can once the new policy come to effect in 2012.

Perry R. Lim said...

Alting: Yes...woe.

Perry R. Lim said...

Chegu Carol: Double sigh.

Perry R. Lim said...

Nick: Yes, a change of policy that doesn't seem to make sense always is.

 
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