Pitfalls of Putrajaya’s half-hearted policy

(The Straits Times) – Listening to Yeoh Chen Chow now, you would not have realised that his English was once so shaky that he needed remedial classes in university.

But when he first enrolled in Cornell University in the United States to study electrical and computer engineering, he was one of the eight out of 3,000 students who needed English lessons.

“My grammar was okay but my pronunciation was weak. In school (in Malaysia), if we spoke English, we’d be seen as showing off,” he told The Straits Times.

Today, the Chinese-educated 28-year-old from Bukit Mertajam, a small town on mainland Penang, helps young Malaysians with their applications to US schools.

Yeoh, who believes that the standard of English has continued to decline, is convinced that the government should keep its policy of using English as the language of instruction for mathematics and science in schools.

On the other hand, Sheema Abdul Aziz, 31, a conservation officer who studied in England after Malay-language schooling, said she had no trouble.

“But I already spoke good English to begin with, so I wasn’t particularly handicapped,” she said.

The two are among the thousands contributing to the ferocious debate on the government’s recent decision to scrap a six-year-old policy to teach maths and science in English. It announced on Wednesday that teaching will revert to Malay, Chinese and Tamil from 2012.

The move immediately drew strong opposition, despite the government’s attempt to explain that the policy had hampered rural children’s ability to learn the two subjects.

Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin quickly swung into action to defend the change of policy, taking questions live over an Internet chat hosted by the New Straits Times the next day.

On the other side, former premier Mahathir Mohamad, who opposes the move, used his blog to run a poll on the government’s decision. Of the 26,000 who voted, about 80 per cent said they were against the reversal.

“I will then try to let the government know your opinion,” wrote Tun Dr Mahathir.

A separate poll on the issue, as part of the independent Merdeka Centre’s survey on Prime Minister Najib Razak’s first 100 days in office, showed that 58 per cent of the 1,060 respondents wanted the policy to continue.

But it is unlikely that the government will change its stand.

The policy was introduced in 2003 for two reasons. One, to increase proficiency in English, and two, to familiarise students with technical terms in English to enable them to pursue higher education in these fields.

It was hailed with joy by English-speaking students, mainly in urban areas, but it soon ran into protests from nationalists who feared that Malay or vernacular languages would be sidelined.

Joining the protests later were students, mainly those in vernacular or rural schools who could not cope with lessons in English because of poor teaching.

A third group opposed it because they felt that it was a misguided policy that would not have the desired impact.

It was one of those rare moments in Malaysia where the divide transcended political and ethnic boundaries.

Malay and Chinese linguistic nationalists joined hands in a temporary alliance, while politicians and activists of different persuasions sang with one voice.

There was not a lot of public support for arguments about cultural pride, but there was sympathy for the children.

There is also some truth in the complaints that the policy was badly implemented. Many of the teachers were not up to the mark, and stories abound of teachers using dictionaries in the classroom to translate as they went along. Or of primary pupils correcting their teachers.

According to education director-general Alimuddin Mohd Dom, only a quarter of the teachers had adequate language skills.

The government is now under pressure to reinstate the policy in secondary schools, or to allow urban schools to use English.

It has resisted such calls, but has instead promised to raise the standard of English by flooding schools with another 14,000 teachers, and to reintroduce English literature classes in primary schools. It is now taught in secondary schools as an elective subject.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said the government was only changing methods.

“The government is aware how important it is for Malaysians to be proficient in English for their own advantage and for the future of the country,” he said.

But Malaysians remain sceptical. Dr Santhi Sivalingam Moorthy, 41, told The Star newspaper that she might send her three children to Singapore schools.

Despite assurances, the U-turn also sends out a different message – something the language nationalists were quick to spot.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has seized the opportunity to slam the policy as “treachery to the struggle to raise the dignity of the national language”.

It was a well-intentioned policy, but in the end, it was doomed by haphazard implementation, and may now set Malaysia well back.

It is a lesson learnt that a half-hearted policy can do more damage than no policy at all.