Teaching of Math and Science in English or Malay?
There is a SMS going around asking people to go to Che Det.com and vote on Tun M’s blog (click here) if math and science should be thought in English or Malay.
I think that the language of instruction is absolutely not the problem at all. If we taught everything in English I will bet you that we still won’t be a first world nation. After all, most of our MP’s are english educated and just look at how they behave. So much so the Speaker wishers for our MP’s to behvae like the British:
DEWAN Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia has expressed his wish that Malaysian MPs will debate and behave like British MPs at the House of Commons one day.
Click on image to see full view:
Lets think about this for a moment on the basis of FACTS. Is English a differentiator when it comes to the Economic and Social well being of a Nation? Here is a list of the top 23 GDP countries in the world. Look at the list and see how many of the are a: native english speakers and b: how many teach match and science in english?
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Now you would think that the English speaking countries dominate – but they dont. So what drives prosperity? For this we have to turn to Adam Smith and he said:
Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations that “basic institutions that protect the liberty of individuals to pursue their own economic interests result in greater prosperity for the larger society.”
I am an absolute proponent that the 3 fundamental drivers of harmony, growth and prosperity are:
a. Freedom to think
b. Freedom to express
c. Freedom to question
Unfortunately, these 3 freedoms go against the ability for the state to exercise political control, cronyism and corruption. Likewise teachers and parents rarely have the patience to nurture these attributes.
What we need is continued political reform to free our education system and pretty much everything else from the tyranny of politics and political dogma.
Why don’t you take a vote here and let me know what you think?
Here is a previous post I wrote titled: Why we should teach math in Chinese to all students.
Saya tidak menyokong dasar PPSMI kerana menafikan hak rakyat untuk memperolehi ilmu: sains/ekonomi/falsafah dsbnya. Adalah tidak adil mengorbankan kehendak rakyat dalam mendaulatkan bahasa ibunda – bahasa melayu. Dasar PPSMI terbukti gagal mencapai matalamat asal untuk menguasai BI dan sains & matematik. Cuma golongan elit mendapat manfaat total dari perlaksanaan dasar ini sedangkan rakyat marhaen bandar/luar bandar dinafikan haknya. Ini tidak adil bagi negara demokrasi seperti amalan Malaysia. langkah bijak pemimpin kini amat disokong demi matlamat 1Malaysia. Bukannya kepentingan elit yang minoriti di negara ini. Fahamilah realiti bukannya falasi dan ilusi.