Pro-English parents group goes national

Children stand next to a Page banner during the group’s launch, July 3, 2010. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — A pro-English language lobby group will open new chapters in other states to raise membership numbers until it convinces the government that many parents want Science and Mathematics taught in that language.

Kuala Lumpur-based Parent Action Group for Education (Page) said its current “mini-roadshow” — which will trumpet the group’s cause in Penang, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor — was to show Putrajaya the issue was not just the bugbear of parents in the Klang Valley but all across the country.

Their national campaign is taking shape despite the decision in 2009 to stop teaching Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) and revert to Malay, effective this year.

“The main objective here is to show the government that it’s beyond the Klang Valley. The desire to have the English option involves many other states,” Page chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim told The Malaysian Insider.

She said the Penang leg of the roadshow, which concluded on Friday, was well-received by the 200 or so people present, 40 of whom signed up as members on the spot.

Azimah said Page aims to become “a force to be reckoned with”.

Noor Azimah also said the parents she met in Penang were open to establishing a Penang chapter of Page, which was registered as a national society in July last year.

She explained that one of Page’s goals at the moment was to increase its numbers as quickly as possible until it became “a force to be reckoned with”, but conceded that it would be a “long-drawn process” before the 100-strong Page attains sufficient mass to shape policy.

Noor Azimah nonetheless hoped that the roadshow would “open the eyes of politicians”. She said if the government failed to take notice of the group, Page would continue to gather members until it got too big to ignore.

“It’s a numbers game,” she said. ““If they can’t see that, we’ll just get bigger and bigger.”

However, Noor Azimah was still hopeful that some compromise could be reached as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had promised to consider letting urban schools continue teaching the subjects in English when the 2009 decision to abolish PPSMI was first made.

“We are holding him to it,” she said.

Noor Azimah also stressed that English, as the international language of science, mathematics and technology, was crucial to realising the Najib administration’s “grand plans” to develop human capital and transform Malaysia into a high-income nation.

Page plans to hand over a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office on January 19 when its roadshow ends. It will be the group’s third memorandum to the prime minister so far and its sixth petition to the government overall.

“We hope this time the difference is that we will have not just my signature but also the Penang representatives, the Melaka representatives, the Selangor representatives, and maybe some personalities from the Bar Council.

“Hopefully after this... it will gather a new momentum and we will be able to hold very similar forums in other states, including East Malaysia,” Noor Azimah said.

When asked how long Page would continue to lobby for the English option, she said simply, “We’re just going to pursue it until we cannot anymore.”

The Page roadshow will stop next at Melaka on January 15, followed by the Malaysian Bar Council in Kuala Lumpur on January 16. - Malaysian Insider