DLP schools: A defining moment

THE new academic year soon begins for primary and secondary schools. Elections are also around the corner. School-going children number about 4.7 million while their parents are an important vote bank.
Wave 2 of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (MEB) states that as far as the English language is concerned an approach to enhance its proficiency is required. Thus, as initiated by the Economic Council and led by the prime minister in 2016, two radical programmes were budgeted for, piloted successfully and then gradually implemented: The Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) and the Dual Language Programme (DLP).
There are 1,593 schools that have implemented DLP as at end of 2017. We are told that HIP will be fully operational in all schools in 2018. However, the DLP is facing a hiccup as a legal suit by several parties of a Tamil school against the Ministry of Education is over-pinning its progress.
One legal suit should not jeopardise aspirations of the majority of parents who have high hopes for the future of their children. Parents do not have the resources to send their children to private or international schools where fees are exorbitant, merely to enjoy more exposure to the English language.
National schools are parents' first choice where the national language is emphasised yet importance is given to the English language through the HIP and DLP.
Parents of children in Tamil schools too understand the importance of DLP because of the seamless transition that will occur at secondary school and into tertiary education.
The MEB 2016 annual report showed DLP benefited students in strengthening their English language ability. A baseline study was jointly conducted by the English Language Training Centre of the Ministry of Education and Cambridge English, an affiliate of Cambridge University.
It was to determine whether or not students' English language proficiency and teachers' teaching ability in English was at par or exceeded international standards. The study was conducted within the partial DLP schools where 890 students were being taught DLP and 518 were not.
What was most interesting was that, in the first year of the DLP implementation, it was already apparent that DLP helped rural students achieve better English language proficiency. DLP was conducted for students in standards one and four in 2016. At the end of primary level (standard six), students are targeted to achieve B2 level, which is the upper immediate proficiency.
The study showed that 15% of rural students with exposure to DLP reached B1 level (intermediate proficiency), only 2% of rural students without DLP reached this level.
On the other end of the spectrum, 25% of non DLP rural students fell below A1 (basic proficiency targeted at the end of preschool) compared with only 4% of DLP students.
The minister of education along with the director-general should instead see the bigger picture of producing global citizens who will bring the nation forward to greater heights.
They should continue to pursue DLP by approving more schools that have applied to conduct the programme, which is gaining strength and has seen success during the past two years. The results speak for itself. Let us not get distracted by politics and opponents of DLP who use it to pursue their selfish agenda. DLP is an option after all.
The importance of the English language cannot be more emphasised. A recent article flagged by the World Economic Forum entitled "The Link Between English and Economics" by Christopher McCormick published in collaboration with the Harvard Business Review shows a direct correlation between the English skills of a population and the economic performance of a country.
Indicators like gross national income and GDP go up. In its latest edition of the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), the largest ranking of English skills by country, we found that in almost every one of the 60 countries and territories surveyed a rise in English proficiency was connected to a rise in per capita income.
And on an individual level, recruiters and human resource managers around the world report that job seekers with exceptional English compared to their country's level earned 30-50% higher salaries.
We urge the prime minister, members of the Economic Council, the minister of education and the director-general of the Ministry of Education to consider the positive long-term impact of DLP, endorse more DLP schools and provide assistance where necessary, and witness the transformation of English language proficiency among our children further powering the nation's economic growth.
Any resistance to DLP or what may be termed as yet another infamous flip-flop would be a major failure by the Ministry of Education to implement the world-renowned MEB in its totality.
Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim
Chairman
Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE)