Malaysians say ‘Yes’ to English as medium of instruction

English is seen as the language of business and knowledge and gets the thumbs up from Malaysians from all walks of life

VIDEO INSIDE

PETALING JAYA: Many Klang Valley residents agree that English should be used as a medium of instruction in the education system.

Last Thursday, Bernama quoted the Sultan of Johor as saying that the state should adopt a single-stream education system, using English as the medium of instruction. He said this would help forge unity among citizens. He cited neighbouring Singapore as an example to emulate.

Free Malaysia Today went around Klang Valley gathering opinions from the general public on whether the sultan’s suggestion should be implemented, not just in Johor, but nationwide.

One man said he agreed with the Sultan, adding that this would make pursuing a tertiary education easier as the medium of instruction at that level was English. He also said, “It (English) is important because globally, business language is in English. It’s not in French. It is not in Chinese.”

Another observed that many Malaysians did speak English, but did not speak it well, suggesting that adopting English as the medium of instruction in schools would address this issue sufficiently.

One young man meanwhile described English as the language of knowledge and noted that most reading material in libraries were available in English.

The issue of unity was also addressed with one Malaysian saying a single-stream system was important in achieving this goal but added that learning one’s mother tongue was equally important.

Yet another agreed with English being a unifying factor among Malaysians that allowed “a meeting of the minds” among students of different races and religions.

“It is a good idea”, said one man, who added that if implementing a single-stream nationwide was not feasible at the moment, then selected schools could adopt this system much like the existence of Chinese and Tamil schools today.

“English is an international language,” said another Malaysian who acknowledged the merits of implementing English as the medium of instruction in our schools, adding that a proficiency in the language would also enable locals to communicate more effectively with those from outside the country.