Changing medium of instruction a disastrous political decision

Published on: Saturday, May 13, 2017

Text Size:

By MN
Many readers have written to the mainstream press requesting the Government reconsider bringing back English medium schools to address the rapid decline in the standard of English among our youths, but it has fallen on deaf ears.

Ironically, there has been a mushrooming of international and private schools all over the country in which the medium of instruction is English. Why the double standard?

These international and private schools are business oriented. They charge exorbitant fees which are way beyond the means of normal working class families in the country. And yet there is certainly a demand for these schools, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many of them coming up, especially when those who can afford it will spare no expense to enrol their children so they can get a better education.

Not to run down our kebangsaan (national) schools but compared to when people of my generation were in school there are obvious differences in terms of the medium of instruction and the racial composition of the schools.

Nowadays, in most kebangsaan schools the student population will most likely come from one ethnic group, unlike my time where the racial composition was more balanced. The problem exists in vernacular schools as well.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising to know that many of these students from the national and vernacular schools rarely have friends outside their own ethnic group which is a shame considering our society is multiracial, multicultural and multireligious.

During my time, the more balanced racial composition in the national schools resulted in me having Malay, Indian and Eurasian friends till today. All of us ate together in the canteen, indulged in sporting activities together and most importantly, we all enjoyed each other’s company in spite of our racial and religious differences.

We never had any animosity toward each other nor was their ever that “awkward feeling” between us.

We treated each other as equals and all of us spoke good English.

Then in the mid-70s, the Government decided to do away with English-medium schools and the result of that disastrous political decision is what we see among our youths today where many local graduates have great difficulty conversing in English.

Previously, the parents of Ahmad, Ah Chong and Muthu could send their children to school knowing they would get an excellent education conducted wholly in English. But now, only the well-heeled can afford to do so at the numerous international and private schools.

The reason why many parents tend to shun national schools could be the racial imbalance of the student population and the subtle infiltration of religion, whether intentionally or not.

Over the years, the decline of English had been staggering. If one cared to inquire from job interviewers in the corporate world, they might just frighten you with their horror stories of the level of spoken English by the applicants.

To arrest the problem the Government has to place more importance and emphasis on English to be taught in schools and universities and be serious about it.

The Government should not allow itself to be swayed by some hard core national language proponents that it would be belittling our national language by bringing back English as a medium of instruction in our schools and universities.

By bringing back English medium schools it will give parents a choice of which school they wish to enrol their child in, be it a national school, a vernacular school or an English-medium school.

Also, do not forget that during the days of English-medium schools in the country, students were still required to pass the Bahasa Malaysia paper in order to obtain a full certificate. So the argument that Bahasa Malaysia will be sidelined should English medium schools be revived holds no water.

Bahasa Malaysia is our national language that unites and identifies us as Malaysians.

MN