No, it is not a betrayal!
Art Harun
By a guest writer, John Baptist*
"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.” The late President John F. Kennedy uttered these prescient words.
I would only hasten to add the word “quality” before education in that phrase acknowledging though that JFK probably saw no need to do so, assuming quality to be a given. In the current context of our country however, I see the necessity to emphasise the word quality. Not the number of degrees or the variety available but the quality!
Education should be formulated to ensure that our nation’s competitiveness in the context of a borderless global economy is never compromised, at any cost.
It is with this mind that I would like to address this area of significant concern – should it be English or Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia for Science and Mathematics? This question must be examined in the context of the long-term objectives of our nation, chief amongst which is our nation’s sustained competitiveness. It must also be borne in mind that this question concerns only two subjects out of a possible ten subjects (based on the restrictions the Government is planning to impose).
