English lessons will give leg up for B40 Indian students

The inability to use Bahasa and English and the lack of skills has made matters worse for Indian youths.

FMT LETTERS

SP Nathan

One of the major challenges faced by low-performing Indian students from the low-income families in secondary schools is their inability to integrate or “mix” with other communities.

This inability has greatly affected the upward mobility of these youths. The key barrier to this is the lack of proficiency in languages, including Bahasa Malaysia and English.

The inability to communicate proficiently in the national language and English and the lack of competencies or skills has made matters worse for these youth.

How are these people going to improve their livelihood? Who is going to employ them?

Youths with specific skills are not successfully employed because they are not able to sell their skills beyond the Indian community.

Taking cognizance of the importance of language for social mobility and looking at language from an economic utility angle, the Educational, Welfare And Research Foundation (EWRF) has been promoting English acquisition as one of its core activities since 2006.

This is in line with the government’s endeavours in promoting English as a language for knowledge acquisition and also as a “business” language.

EWRF believes that being proficient in this international language will have a tremendous impact on the self-esteem and confidence of a student, especially one who has been exposed to only the Tamil language during his/her early years.

Unlike children from the T20 group of high-earners in the community, who are constantly exposed to the English language, students from the B40 lower-income economic band have limited exposure and resources.

They do not have the luxury of tuition centres, professional programmes and internet facilities enjoyed by their affluent fellow students.

Various NGOs have been providing help to this group of children but the resources are not sufficient to cover all those who need help.

EWRF is aware of the severe constraint on resources as we have been involved in this service for the last 10 years.

How do we make sure students use opportunities to improve their “business“ language proficiency so that they can secure decent employment to eventually move out of the B40 band?

Their only source for learning English are the teachers in schools.

EWRF views the implementation of the dual language programme (DLP) in certain schools as an excellent opportunity for the students from the B40 band to become proficient in English, the international language.

EWRF recognises the challenges faced by the community in the implementation of DLP. However, it is the community’s responsibility to identify these challenges and find ways to overcome them.

Denying students the added opportunity to become proficient in English should never be the choice.

Students in the B40 band, especially in the rural areas, need to get help within the school system since external help may not be available due to a lack of financial resources.

Being aware of this, many parents have voiced their support for DLP. They are agreeable to this development and EWRF is of the view that the voice of parents must be given due respect.

Parents are responsible for their children and no one should under-estimate their ability to decide.

Parents from the B40 band know that proficiency in English is required for their social mobility and economic success.

They want their children to excel in the language and climb the social ladder. So let’s not deprive their children of this opportunity to move forward.

SP Nathan is president of the Education, Welfare & Research Foundation (EWRF) Malaysia.--FMT