Science and maths subjects will be taught in mother tongue

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?