Cover image via themalaysianinsider.com
The importance of the English language in local schools have been stressed on for decades now, with constant debates and changes in the education system, testing multiple theories brought up on the matter.
Providing clarity to the hazy subject, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) is conducting a survey on the importance of local students mastering the English language.
PEMANDU is an organisation under the Prime Minister's department that was launched in 2009 to facilitate and implement all reformations by the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
The education sector is one of the main components to play a major role under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) that was started to transform Malaysia into becoming a high-income nation by the year 2020.
Image via Greater Malaysia
The survey that was launched on 6 October, aims to get Malaysians to express their views on the 'importance of being proficient in English', in particular thoughts and suggestions on implementing this global language in Malaysian schools
Questions in the survey mostly seek answers from general Malaysians on increasing the usage of English language in public schools.
Two subjects in focus were **Mathematics and Science,** as these subjects are constantly evolving and the updates and **discoveries** are mostly **documented in English.**
With questions such as; In your opinion, should some subjects in schools be taught in English to improve students' proficiency in the language?, this study by PEMANDU has the potential to gauge **what the masses think about using more English in schools and whether or not it would affect the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.**
The survey, which has 7 questions, will **end by 5pm on 11 October**, this Saturday.
Image via PEMANDU
This interactive survey poses some interesting questions that allow Malaysians to give suggestions on the kind of subjects that should be taught in English, adding to the suggestions PEMANDU has already provided, that includes History, Geography, and Arts
English is the world's first world language and is the medium most widely used in publishing, trade, scientific, diplomacy, and the entertainment industry.
Schools in Malaysia started off as English-medium schools and remained that way until the 1970s, when the national language policy was introduced and Bahasa Malaysia became the medium of instruction instead.
Commending PEMANDU's keen efforts to improve the education system with this survey, Air Asia group chief Tan Sri Tony Fernandes thinks falling English standards in the country is the reason behind Malaysia losing its edge in the global scene
Another party happy with PEMANDU's survey on English in schools is the Parents Action Group for Education (PAGE), that is hopeful a positive outcome of the survey would lead to the comeback of English in Mathematics and Science subjects
Parents Action Group for Education (Page) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim
Image via The Malaysian Insider
CEO of PEMANDU Dato' Sri Idris Jala, too, shared the survey, urging Malaysians to complete the short, 7 question survery
Idris Jala is also the Minister without portfolio in the Prime Minister's Department
Image via Idris Jala/Twitter
After 21 years, former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, in his efforts to modernise and put Malaysia on the global platform, declared that Mathematics and Science would be taught in English in 2003
Mahathir was eager to implement this new system, wanting to improve Malaysians' proficiency of the English language and increase chances of employability, both locally and internationally.
The sudden emphasis on the English language was poorly received by Malay nationalists that expressed their worries on whether the Malay language would be forgotten and left behind in the midst of Malaysians trying to polish their English language abilities
Their concerns were mainly about Malays losing their dignity and forgetting their mother tongues.
Nevertheless, the new system was enforced in national schools throughout the country and Malaysia saw a renewed and extensive usage of the English language as the system set in.
Malaysians, mostly supported the notion as the change allowed the students an easier passage into tertiary education, where all the subjects are taught in English.
However, just 6 years into the new education transformation program, that successfully incorporated English in the local education system, as more than just a subject, then Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced on 8 July 2009, that Mathematics and Science will be taught in Bahasa Malaysia again
Muhyiddin, who was also the education minister then, announced that the reversion would only take place in 2012 and that the vernacular schools will go back to teaching Mathematics and Science in their respective mother tongues.
Why the reversion back to Bahasa Malaysia?
Despite the ministry's decision to do away with the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English, Muhyiddin assured the rakyat, that efforts to improve and strengthen English among students will go on
Disagreeing with Muhyiddin, former PM Mahathir has been lobbying against the implementation of Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science
Being the one who introduced and emphasised on the widespread usage of the English language, Mahathir stressed that **English must be brought back for teaching Mathematics and Science.**
Adding to that, he also expressed his views on the idea of making **English a compulsory subject to pass** in schools. As of today, the only subject that is compulsory to pass is Bahasa Malaysia.
He also lamented that he had been receiving complaints about the **worsening quality of graduates** in Malaysia and the former PM pinned the blame on poor English speaking and writing skills among graduates in the country.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Islamic Students, in 2013, insisted that Bahasa Malaysia must be retained as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science.
According to the group, failure to do so will cause the Malays to lose their identity.
