‘Some secondary school students still illiterate in English’

The serious lack of English proficiency among students was a key issue raised at the Transformasi Nasional 50 (TN50) dialogue held in Subang Jaya last night.

One participant, My Readers literacy programme founder Charis Ding, said there are still secondary school students who are illiterate in the English language.

As an example, she cited a 13-year-old student who could only read eight words out of a 77-word passage set for a Standard One student, highlighting a literacy gap of six years.

"This is not an isolated problem. It happens in many national schools," she noted.

According to Ding, My Readers is a comprehensive reading intervention programme designed to get students from illiteracy to literacy in 27 weeks.

Meanwhile Project Fearless founder Nurul Ashiqin Shamsuri, who was the night's first speaker, said speaking English, particularly among students in the rural areas, is still often regarded as a pretentious act.

The mindset, it was noted, is often linked to a perceived notion that mastering English would somehow pose a threat to national identity and the national language.

Nurul Ashiqin said English proficiency in the country should not be "politicised", and speaking the language should be encouraged even if their pronunciation or grammar is not perfect.

"English shouldn't be viewed as an identity threat. You can't take away the Malaysian in us.

"Some say English will erode our national identity. Some politicians are going strong on that notion to gain popularity," she said.

"My personal belief is that you should not politicise education," she said, citing her experience of living in Europe and communicating with other non-native English speakers.

Participants and audience members at the session, organised by education group Teach For Malaysia, comprised social entrepreneurs and volunteers from various education NGOs, mostly working with underprivileged school-aged children on improving their English proficiency.

[More to follow]

-Mkini