Science and Mathematics in English

Dear Government,

I have steadfastly tried to believe in you. I know you have many faults and despite that, I tried to believe that you would make a difference someday somehow. After all, we got this far in 50 something years didn’t we?

But somehow, when you announced that Science and Math would be taught in Malay again, I felt my faith in you dwindle to a meager amount. It was for political reasons that you switched back. You cared not for the education of the younger generation.

You did not even wait to see the fruits of your experiment.

I didn’t really mind being a guinea pig. As a student who started learning Science and Math in Form 1, I found it ridiculously easy to obtain information from the internet and from books. There was little to no translation error when I studied. When I had to look up information, I found that most of my resources were in English and I didn’t need to worry if I was using the wrong words or terms. It was easy for me to understand what I was doing and if I couldn’t understand one book, I could look it up in another.

However, this is not the case with Malay. Although there is a lot of resources in Malay, the quality and the quantity just does not compare to those in English. Like it or not, translation errors occur, word errors occur, it’s a hassle to rework English grammar to fit Malay grammar and there really aren’t that many Malay resources out there.

Universities have complained that there has been no improvement in the standard of students.

Science and Mathematics in English has only been implemented since 2003. The first generation of S&M in English has only started University this year. How can you say that there has been no improvement? The government has been looking at the students who spent quite some time studying Science and Math in Malay that have gone to university. Those aren’t your test subjects, why are you looking at them?

The gap between rural and urban students has increased.

Of course, it has increased! The urban students have better access to books and online resources in ENGLISH. They understand better and henceforth improve faster than their rural counterparts. This isn’t a problem of what subject is taught in which language. It’s a problem of resource accessibility.

The subjects are being taught in both languages instead of only one

I don’t see the problem with this. If a student doesn’t understand something in English, is it not normal to explain it again in Malay so that he or she understands? In this way, do the students not gain more knowledge? They understand in Malay, then they understand in English and so they understand both.



If you’re going to experiment on us, at least have the courtesy to finish the experiment instead of leaving us hanging halfway through.


Sincerely,
Lab rat