Deputy Prime Minister cum Education Minister announced that science and
mathematics subjects will use the mother tongue of the students as medium of
instruction in primary and secondary schools starting from the year
2012.Currently the two subjects are taught in English since 2003 in a move to
enhance the standard of English language.After implementing this policy for 6
years the English language standard does not show any significant
improvement,while the performance of the students in the Science & Mathematics
subjects had seen a drastic drop. Faced with the growing criticism from the
public,the Government decided to revert back to using mother tongue as medium of
instruction for these 2 subjects. Of course,there are also people supporting the
use of English as medium of instruction, notably the so called "banana people"
who speak English at home.Their children naturally have a very clear advantage
over the children who speak their own mother tongue at home.With the abolishing
of this policy they will lose the advantage over other children. Another group
of people who supported teaching science and maths in English are those who give
English language tuition classes. They are worried that their market will be
affected if the English language is not given the same importance as before. The
Government's aim to improve the standard of English language in schools is
right,but I feel they moved too hasty and the action too drastic. They could
have asked the teachers concerned to learn the proper technical terms
(scientific names and mathematical terms)in English for the respective subjects
then pass on to the students.This way,the sudents will grasp the principles of
the subjects taught and also master the "jargons" at the same time. The teachers
themselves will be less burdened because they need not learn a whole new
language (for many of them I guess) but only need to memorise some short
phrases.This would be much easier. A little joke here: A maths teacher told the
class,"ten push seven equals three".Got it?
