Towards a world class education system

"BM will serve science students well" (Letters, May 30) refers.
The writer blamed the teaching and learning of science and maths in English (PPSMI) to be the cause of the decline in Malaysia's performance in international benchmarking tests, TIMSS and PISA. But he did not look at certain findings in the Pembina and UPSI PPSMI research.
PPSMI started in 2003 for Std 1 and Form 1, and was abolished in 2011 gradually by cohort. This would mean that some students would have been taught in Bahasa Malaysia or English or a combination of both at some time, depending on the cohort and year.
First, questions in the TIMSS and PISA tests are in two languages, English and BM. Students can choose to answer either in BM or English. The questions are also set at various levels of difficulty. Some of the easy, level 1 Mathematics questions are numerical, non-word questions. The PISA 2012 showed that Malaysia's performance in Mathematics at level 1 and below stands at 45% compared with Singapore at 10%.
Second, TIMSS and PISA are tested on Form 2 and Form 4 students respectively. TIMSS is conducted every four years, and PISA every three years. The cohort who sat for TIMSS 2011 was exposed to PPSMI for just over a year because they would only start PPSMI at Form 1 and missed the start of PPSMI at Std 1. They started Std 1 in 2002, a year before the start of PPSMI.
Third, the UPSI research showed that only 8% of the teachers are reported to teach confidently in English. Which would mean 92% of teachers did not possess the proficiency level to teach the two subjects in English.
To conclude that the decline in performance is due to language is therefore inconclusive.
Our TIMSS and PISA performance shows a greater need to improve the teaching of science and maths to a higher level, to promote critical thinking and the application of the knowledge into various contexts. The high performing school systems in the world are those that allocate educational resources equitably among advantaged and disadvantaged schools, and that grant more autonomy over curricula and assessments to individual schools.
Let's not dwell on this issue of medium of instruction any further. At the current stage, the Dual Language Programme (DLP) that gives students the option of learning STEM in English is being practised at selected national and national-type schools.
PAGE hopes that more schools would be able to adopt the programme, and eventually all schools would have at least a class of DLP if parents and students so choose.
There are more challenging transformations that need to happen. We need to focus our resources on building equity in education and narrowing the gap between national schools and international schools and uplifting our schools to be at par with high performing schools in the world.
The Finland concept of enhancing equality focuses on children who need more time and help than others to succeed. The country not only employs the best as teachers but has made equity the cornerstone of its education reform since the 1970s.
To achieve equity in education, Finland realised that it needed teachers who were better educated and prepared to take on the task. It redesigned teacher education and required that preschool and primary school teachers have a relevant master's degree.
Thus, it is not enough to just have quality teachers; they also have to be trained to serve a specific need.
Teaching is a highly prized profession in Finland. Teachers are highly trained, and would have gone through a high quality education so that they know how to use the freedom they are given, and learn to solve problems through research hence are given a great deal of autonomy.
Can we shift the discussion into the macro sphere and ensure that our children are well prepared, intelligent, confident, resourceful, resilient, hard-working, and are better equipped to take on the challenges of the future.
Tunku Munawirah Putra
Secretary
PAGE Malaysia