'NO' to English

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has no plans to revert the medium of instruction in national schools to English from Bahasa Malaysia, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He told the Dewan Rakyat that the government will have to amend the current the Education Act 1996 if English is to be used as the medium of instruction in national schools.
“Malaysians generally have the ability to learn and master the (English) language. Today it is the question of upskilling and upgrading the proficiency in schools especially among teachers.
“There are many countries in the world that use their native language. Why should we change (from Bahasa Malaysia) and go back to the old system that is not in line with the current law?” Muhyiddin said in his winding up speech on the 11th Malaysia Plan today.
Saying that Malaysian students generally have not been performing well in English, he said measures are underway to tackle the problem beginning with training more teachers to master the language first.
“I have already made the announcement to make it compulsory to pass English to get the certificate (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia). But the problem is that many of our students have not come to the level to be able to reach this target.
“If we proceed immediately, then many students would not get their certificates and parents would not be happy with this situation. So we need to have initial measures to ensure that students are prepared to face this next year,” he said.
Muhiyiddin had reportedly said that upon the implementation of a compulsory pass in English, students who fail English will not receive their full SPM certificate but will have the opportunity to re-sit the paper in July the following year.
On May 7, the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, at the opening of the state legislative assembly meeting, had called for English to be brought back as the medium of instruction in schools, citing Singapore as an example.
“Singapore’s system has proven to be successful ... (it has) helped to unite the races (there),” he added.
“What we can emulate from Singapore is the unity which has been fostered by its single-stream education system which uses English language as the medium,” the Sultan said.
The Sultan’s call received widespread support from many education groups and individuals calling for English to be brought back as the medium of instruction.