Come up with plan to address English language barriers, says Syed Saddiq

 

Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman says Malaysians must be proficient in English to compete in the global competition for talent, jobs and investment.

PETALING JAYA: The government must come up with a plan to address English language barriers among Malaysians so they do not miss out on greater economic opportunities, Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said.

He stressed that English is the international language of commerce and trade, and Malaysians must be proficient in the language to access opportunities around the world.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the facts on the ground. Proficiency in English is regarded as a crucial quality that companies in Malaysia are seeking when looking through job applications and is very often the reason cited for the perceived unemployability of Malaysian graduates in the private sector,” he said in a Facebook post today.

The Muar MP and former youth and sports minister said that despite Malaysia being ranked 28th out of 112 countries in the 2021 English Proficiency Index, Malaysians should not be proud that the nation is ranked only behind Singapore and the Philippines within Asia.

“We should remember that the competition for talent, jobs and investment in the coming decades will be increasingly global.

“With a population of only 33 million people, it is crucial that Malaysians are equipped with every possible tool to export innovative ideas, solutions and goods quickly and easily to the rest of the world,” he said.

Syed Saddiq said an education policy that aims to ensure that all Malaysian students achieve proficiency in at least three languages, including Malay and English, is crucial to breaking down walls and building bridges between communities in the country.

Recently, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said he would confer with Asean leaders to propose the use of Malay as the grouping’s second language, in efforts to elevate the mother tongue at the international level.

Syed Saddiq said while he welcomed the effort at strengthening proficiency in Malay, he was worried that the proposal was merely for the purpose of rallying up support in an election year, without an actual vision or philosophy for the language in a complex country like Malaysia. - FMT