No going back to PPSMI, says Muhyiddin

The government will not return to the policy of teaching and learning Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) as the new policy of dignifying Bahasa Malaysia usage and raising English proficiency (MBMMBI) is in line with the country’s need to dignify Bahasa Melayu as the national language.

In heading towards this objective, Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said, the government would thus not turn back, despite appeals and pressure for PPSMI to continue, as the government could not please every group.

“However, their views have been considered in planning and implementing the MBMMBI policy,” he said in his reply to Mohd Nor Othman (BN-Hulu Terengganu) who wanted to know whether the government could ensure that it would not return to the old policy.

Muhyiddin, who is also deputy prime minister, said to avoid problems when implementing MBMMBI as what happened with PPSMI, the government had set 2012 for its implementation so as to give enough time for preparations, unlike the six months taken to prepare for PPSMI’s implementation.

For instance, he said, the ministry would need 13,000 additional teachers while to improve students’ English proficiency, it would need many teachers who had mastered the language, including the 1,000 to be recruited from next year.

To a question from Mohamed Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) whether former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s strong statement against the PPSMI being discontinued would have an impact on the current administration, Muhyiddin said he believed that Dr Mahathir did not mean to ask the government to reverse its new policy.

“He (Dr Mahathir) understands ... that it was the decision of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government and he’s an Umno and BN supporter. And I had already stated that is not all about the national language but also the English language. So, English usage will also be strengthened.”

Later speaking to reporters at the parliament lobby, Muhyiddin said the people should not be unduly worried about the reversal of policy as the government was already taking preliminary measures to implement the new policy (MBMMBI) in 2012.

“We may even have to recruit English teachers from abroad,” he said, adding that the implementation of the new policy also meant the urgent need to produce Science and Mathematics textbooks in Bahasa Malaysia as well as a new curriculum for teaching English.

He said the ministry was also looking at the possibility of implementing MBMMBI in 2011 for Year One pupils only as they would not be involved in PPSMI.

“However, this will depend on several factors like whether there will be enough teachers, and whether the new curriculum and Science and Mathematics textbooks will be ready by the end of 2010.”

Muhyiddin said for Year Four, Form One and Form Four students, the implementation of MBMMBI would commence in 2012, to enable the ministry to make proper preparations.


comments

This BN govn has always been caught with pants down.To master English one has to all basic of English taught to the teachers and these teachers in return will have good foundatation.Then only the teachers can communicate in English in the right manner.The situation now is that the teachers themselves cannot communicate in English in the right manner.For eg my 2nd year son asked me how to pronounce PERFUME and I pronounced PER FUME but to my surprise the teacher pronounced PRE FUME.What direction are we going?


If this continues KETUANAN MELAYU is going to is be achieved by the elite Malays who hold POLITICAL AGENDA against their own race by making sure that their kids get english based education to become the masters of their own race in the expance of rural Malays who are let out of main stream learning procedure where ENGLISH is INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE of learning.Many Malays who can afford are sending their kids to PRIVATE ENGLISH SCHOOLS.to make sure their kids get better education.Thus better future prospects.ENGLISH IS INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE.No one can deny it.Ask DEWAN BAHASA DAN PUSTAKA to do overtime and tranlate English books.Better late than never.The Education Ministry must be rigid and nomore FLIP FLOPS.The Nations future lies in MASTERING english and to compete internationally we have to have strong English foundation.