Saturday, October 29, 2011

English Gets You Nowhere BM Gets Me the Votes

Those who are trying to not let English be snuffed out in the education system of BolehLand are fighting a losing battle.

First they are fighting against the survival of a political party than for to ensure their children survive if the children seeks education overseas or decide to work overseas.

Then these groups including PAGE are battling against the racist policy and political game of divide and rule perpetuated by the BN government strongly supported by UMNO, MCA and MIC. These three based political parties are adamant of ensuring that three different languages closely associated with their survival as a political party are taught in schools. So Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil reign supreme in the supposedly national education policy.

Attempts by concerned parents to give their children a better opportunity to survive in a global environment seems a futile battle. The government because of politics prefer to revert back to the divide and rule formula for education. They have turned the language issue into a national and sensitive issue. Given anything is possible in BolehLand, don't be surprised they are going to amend the Education Act to make it a crime for anyone to want to propose for English to be taught other than as a language, while Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil will be accorded Article 153 like treatment huh?

Given election is in the air and the new school term is not far away, the government must start its insistence on NO COMPROMISE, NO OPTION on using Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil for Science and Maths. Sorry English is only to be relegated to a language like literature.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin insisted today there will be no leeway for schools to continue using English to teach mathematics and science despite sustained pressure from parents’ groups. The deputy prime minister told reporters today that allowing schools to choose whether to stick with teaching science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) or convert to Malay would result in a “mess”. “There are teachers who are not good at English. So what is the use? Parents’ aspirations won’t be met,” Muhyiddin said


If you have three ethnic languages in your school system, does it not reflect the national education policy is a HUGE BIG MESS huh?

If you are so insistence on BM for Science and Maths, why is there a distinction and double standard that residential schools are allowed to use English Language as their medium of instruction?

Why don't the Chinese and Tamil schools be allowed to use their respective language even up to tertiary level? Why are these two ethnic schools students required to shift from their mother tongue to BM and not to English?

The blame on the demise of the value and importance of the English Language in schools is the doing of the government, the messy education policy that allows THREE languages in the school system and disallowing ENGLISH as an option!

If there are private institutions willing to start schools that use English as a medium of instruction, will it be banned? After all, what is the difference between a school that uses English medium and one that uses Chinese and Tamil?

Why are we favouring and giving millions to perpetuate and expand Mandarin and Tamil language schools and not allow for English language schools to be set up.

To PAGE and all those parents who are being pragmatic in our global world today, go and set up a school where English is the medium of instruction and ask the government if you are allowed to do so. Then you will know how MESSY the Education Ministry and Minister is. And you can be assured they will NEVER be able to give you a rational answer of why they can ban your English medium schools citing the piece of social contract.

If it's about a piece of paper to legalise it, isn't the solution to legalise it than stick to a pre 1960's agreement?

Concerned parents are not being selfish but are thinking for the future of their children and the nation too. Should we label them traitors or racists just because they want the best for their children. If they are confident their children will have a better advantage in any of the language based schools, they would have really shut up and believe the government knows best right?

But the government does not know what is best for the nation except for their respective political survival. To these race based politicians, their belief and thinking is "English gets you nowhere and BM, Mandarin and Tamil gets me the votes!" Never mind if their children are not even enrolled in the national school education system? They are for their own political survival and if their voters' children can't get a job, they can go finger pointing at other races for depriving them of justice, equality and fairness in job opportunities and what have you.

In BolehLand, religion and race and a high dose of politicising everything is the norm and the cultural DNA of the society, being called 1Malaysia today.

The English language is seen as a foreign element and even a colonial tool to try and wrest political power and control from those who think themselves sons of the soil. The English language is seen as a new form of colonialisation and stripping away the purity of the bumputraness or the MCA-ness or MIC-ness of the respective political parties.

Children and graduates are being scolded if they can't speak English well and they have been reminded, told over and over again they must improve their English. How? By being super students during the English language class alone and to do it only after schooling hours huh? After all, the kids can only speak English after school hours, so the government is letting an outside school environment to the teacher of English for the kids, is it?

What is this stupid remark about no suitable English speaking teachers to teach the language so forget it huh? It is not that the teachers were asked to teach Englished based on a flip flop tomorrow switch decision is it? The answer is typical of the government where civil servants who can't do the job continues to be pampered, given raise and even bonus - just to fish for votes?

Did the Education fellows ask if those teachers who want to teach in English be allowed to do so? Is he generalising? Are teachers that incompetent? Is he humiliating the teachers? Or the teachers are a bunch of incompetent educators?

Even if the teachers can teach in Bahasa Melayu there is still no assurance the kids are going to be taught the right mathematics and science too? Ask the lecturers and they will tell you the kids have no understanding of basic maths or algebra or calculus? So is it the language or has it got to do if the teachers themselves are competent subject specialists.

Language is only one medium to express thought, ideas, creativity and so on. Understanding a subject and able to communicating it so that others can understand it too is a different thing together.

Even if the teachers are great speakers of BM, are the teachers competent in the subject itself? Some goes with any teacher who teaches in any language. Ask students in colleges where English is the medium and many can tell you their lecturers have no understanding of what the subject is or the students can't understand what the lecturer is teaching!

Even if the teacher speaks beautiful Bahasa Melayu when teaching History or Civics, is the subject matter correct, factual and balanced?

The solution of parents who wish their kids to excel in English and study overseas and have an edge over the smart kids who speaks excellent BM is to save more money to teach their kids English.

The real crux of the matter for each student at the end of the day is when he seeks employment and in the interview the employer tells him "I am sorry, your English is not up to mark for the job", he will know who have failed him, the education system, the parents or the politicians or himself.

Knowing the MESS of our education system, the students are left on their own really to pick up a language that will give them a better edge when he starts work. Unless he or she wants to be a civil servant or a party member of the political parties that is the cause of the MESS of the education system, huh?

If the government is truly concerned and want the national language policy to work and stop using Japan, China, Germany, France, Italy, South Korea or even Thailand as an example, the government should insist all submissions, foreign contractor workers, foreign companies and every communication in BolehLand be mandated in Bahasa Melayu. Don't trade or give licence or have any business with ANYONE including foreigners who refuse to use Bahasa Melayu in contracts, legal agreements, trade credit papers, computer programmes, even instructions for airplanes, military aircraft, household items, telecommunications, everything following what the above countries have done. Including ending Mandarin and Tamil schools. And don't allow religion to exist if they don't use BM too right?

That would shut everyone up including PAGE from trying to turn history back so it seems.

Is the government willing to nationalise Bahasa Melayu and put a stop to all these nonsense and endless debate about the language to use to teach our kids huh?

If the BN government can't take this option or want to, then stop making excuses and make yourself looking like fools! You are the cause of the MESS. Is that too difficult an English word to understand, huh? - YAHMEH!!!

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