Keep the English school option open
It is not just here in Malaysia that the importance of the English language as a communication and competitive tool is being hotly debated. Even in France, where opposition against the use of English in universities is fierce, proponents of the language are gaining strength.
Azam Aris, The Edge
It is not just here in Malaysia that the importance of the English language as a communication and competitive tool is being hotly debated. Even in France, where opposition against the use of English in universities is fierce, proponents of the language are gaining strength.
A proposed law to introduce more courses in English in universities was passed by the French lower house in May, a move which a top scholar called a “suicidal project” that would lead to France sacrificing its language to “Americanisation disguised as globalisation”.
And you are talking about the French community, who are excessively proud of their language wherever they live in the world. In English-speaking Canada, French in spoken by the majority in Quebec and is the sole official language of the country’s largest province. In Geneva, Switzerland’s second largest city, French is also the official language.
But the introduction of more courses in English in French universities is deemed necessary by its supporters as the lack of usage of English was cited as a major factor for the country’s declining global competitiveness.
According to news reports, the move is part of a broader overhaul of tertiary education there, and was introduced in March by France’s Minister of Higher Education and Research Geneviève Fioraso. This proposal is part of an ongoing effort to relax a 1994 law that requires the use of French in classrooms, from nursery schools to universities.
It is also aimed at attracting more students from abroad – from emerging economies like China, India and Brazil – who prefer to go to university in English-speaking nations. In short, France realises that English plays a crucial role in ensuring a nation’s competitiveness in the Internet era and a globalised economy.
In Malaysia, the sentiment is no different. There are many supporters who want to “bring English back into the education system” because they feel that as a nation, we will lose out. In an Internet world, so much information out there is available in English, information that can only be maximised if one has a reasonably good command of the language.
It is an accepted fact that many employers, including multinational corporations, have cited poor command of English as a reason local graduates find it difficult to get a job here, let alone overseas.
Proponents of the English language are not against the present education system of using Bahasa Malaysia, but they want an option where parents can choose to send their children to a national English school, like in the post-independent years of the 1950s and 1960s. Currently, there is none.
National English schools were slowly phased out by the government from 1970 in the name of promoting national unity and Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of communication in education and administration, in line with its status as the national language. By 1982, teaching in the whole education system was conducted in Bahasa Malaysia with English becoming just a language subject.
Since then, many education experts and professionals in the private and public sectors agree that this is a key reason the standard of English and its proficiency among students have dropped dramatically over the last 30 years.
The government realises this and the Education Ministry chose to implement a policy of teaching and learning science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) in 2003 as one way to avert further decline.
The move to reintroduce English was the right one, but many believe the subjects chosen were wrong if the objective was to improve the writing and communication skills of the students.
Without getting the teaching infrastructure right – having enough science and mathematics teachers proficient in English and English language teachers to implement PPSMI – the move was opposed by many parents and was doomed to fail.
This is because many students in the rural areas, who do not have a strong foundation of English, were put at a disadvantage, so much so that it affected their understanding and performance in the two subjects of science and mathematics. To circumvent the situation, many teachers in the rural areas ended up teaching science and mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia or using both languages.
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