English Medium For Elites Only?

Very late past midnite of 5th May, 2013 after the elections results had come in I sent one sms to a lady who is an education activist.  My sms said, 'I think we will get the PPSMI'.  She replied 'Insya Allah'. 

Here is something from The Star :

New MARA college in Parit is first in Perak to offer GCSE certificate

• new MRSM in Parit first in Perak to offer Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)
• Shafie Apdal said it was third in the country to offer the certificate
• RM80mil school, 7th MRSM in the state officially opened by Raja Dr Nazrin 
• 21.85ha land, school began in May last year 800 students.
• philosophy behind MARA’s education focus on human capital development 
• necessary knowledge and skills at par with international standards.
• MRSM to ensure value-added education given to students 
• successful MRSM graduates are Minister Abdul Wahid Omar, Kedah MB Mukhriz Mahathir, Air Asia CEO Kamaruddin Meranum and first astronaut Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
• several students from MRSM has achieved success at international level.
• “Two MRSM (Sarawak) students won gold at International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva 2013 and International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Environment Project Olympiad 2013 in Houston, Texas for their science project.
• “Another two from MRSM Kota Kinabalu won gold at 14th International Robot Olympiad in Gwanju, South Korea in 2012” 
• to equip our children with skills and knowledge to compete nationally and internationally 

Something is not right here.  RM80 million for an MRSM that educates 800 students. That is RM100,000 per student.  Its not an apple to apple comparison but still that is a lot of money - taxpayers money that goes into creating the new elites.  That is what is really happening. I have reasons for saying this. 

This MRSM offers the  Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). There is no Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Pasal apa pula? OK - its a sekolah asrama penuh, a residential school. Its a different cup of tea.

But obviously the school teaches in the English language. How come the MRSM plus all the other sekolah asrama penuh (residential school systems) all teach in English whereas the rest of the Government school system cannot even get the PPSMI reinstated? 

This is where the unfairness lies. 

Worse than that - this is where the Gomen is admitting that the regular Gomen schools are not designed to produce  human capital development,  at par with international standards, compete nationally, internationally and all that. 

I think taxpayers will not mind too much that the Gomen is spending RM80 million to build a new elitist school for 800 kids and teach them in English to prepare them for the Cambridge GCSE examinations and stuff.  SPM pun dah tak laku. 

But why does the Gomen deny the same right to the normal everyday school child to also learn Mathematics and Science subjects in English? What type of illogical explanation does the Gomen have to explain this ?

If the English medium is good for the MRSM surely then it must also be good for the rest of the country? 

Putting it another way, if English medium teaching is NOT good for the regular Gomen schools then how come it is good for the MRSM, the MCKK, the Tunku Kursiah College, the Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid and all the other residential schools in the country? 

I am also curious : when the MRSM students take the Cambridge GCSE  do they also get 17 As, 15As and such? I doubt the passing grade for Additional Mathematics at the GCSE is set at 14 marks either. 

Sudah ada sekolah high class and low class ke? But the taxpayers pay for both schools. 

I received the information for this blog post from something called ASPIRES - this is an NGO that is working hard, along with outfits like PAGE - to reestablish English medium schools throughout the country.

Here is some news for the Gomen - the people are really fed up with the deteriorating education system. Many, many people want an English medium education system.  Or at least they want the PPSMI to be reinstated. 

Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people voted against the Gomen in the last PRU 13 because of the Gomen's decision to abolish the PPSMI in Gomen schools.

Now when people find out that the Gomen is spending RM80 million to set up an elite school for just 800 students to be taught exclusively in English and to prepare them to sit for the Cambridge GCSE exams the Gomen is going to lose even more tens of thousands of votes. 

I think the Gomen is thoroughly confused over education issues. I think the Gomen is going to lose the PRU 14 over the confusion in education as well.

May I make some suggestions to the Gomen :

i. just bring back the PPSMI system in Gomen schools. 

ii. or create a new system where half the subjects in school are taught in Malay and the other half is taught in English. Say of 10 subjects, five are taught in Malay and five are taught in English (preferably Science subjects). 

iii. conduct a referendum and ask the people 

• if they want the PPSMI back 
• if they want English medium schools back (like in the 1970s and earlier). 

Just get the peoples' opinion. This is an important issue. The Gomen does not have the smarts or the common sense to decide on this matter at all. The Gomen has failed completely in this regard.

And please stop listening to the book publishing Mafia which I know has a very strong influence on  our education policies. 

It is still a mystery why children need textbooks, exercise books and then workbooks. And it is a mystery why school textbooks are changed every year. But it is no mystery to the book publishing Mafia. They make money from publishing all these school books. 

Up to the 1970s we never had workbooks. We only had text books and exercise books. Textbooks rarely changed for years. This created a second hand textbook market. Even under the Buku Pinjaman scheme, old text books had to be returned to the school so that they could be reused by other students.  This saved the Gomen tens of millions of Ringgit every year. It saved money for parents as well.

Nowadays textbooks and workbooks are just thrown away after just one year. The wastage of money runs into the hundreds of millions of Ringgit.  More publishing contracts for the publishing Mafia.

Get rid of the workbooks. WE dont need them. Just use textbooks and exercise books. And there is no need to change the textbooks every year.

The Gomen is going to lose the elections in PRU 14 if the Gomen insists on listening to the crony textbook publishers and the crony workbook publishers who fight tooth and nail for school book publishing contracts.  It is worth hundreds of millions of Ringgit of taxpayers money.

And here is the reason why one teacher voted for the Opposition :

Teachers are complaining of really stupid, tak masuk akal new rules they have to follow. Teachers are required to record in each student's personal file the progress of the students reading skills. This is useless work that wastes the teachers time and does not help anyone. No one checks these student files to monitor the improvement of the students reading skills. It is just kerja kosong imposed upon the teachers. Students progress is measured by performance in school examinations.

The latest evolution of this silly ruling is that teachers are now required to photocopy and file in the student's personal file each and every "test page" the student has read .  

So now the students' personal files in the schools are becoming thicker than unread Cabinet papers.  The student files get thicker but no one really reads them. And the diligent teachers keep photocopying and filing the pages that the students have read. What a waste of time and effort. Just wasting more and more time.  And the Gomen is losing the teachers' votes by the thousands. Tens of thousands of teachers do not vote for the Gomen anymore. 

Now we have FOUR Ministers (two full Ministers and two Deputy Ministers) in charge of education. This is the most urgent reform that needs to be undertaken in the country. If you ask me, the Gomen will continue making mistakes and lose the PRU 14.