Marina praises MOE sec-gen for superb English

Social activist says Madinah “speaks very well” and is clear about what she wants to say.

PETALING JAYA: With the Melta conference in session now at the Royale Chulan, Marina Mahathir has taken to Twitter, posting a series of tweets that captured the essence of a keynote address delivered by Dr Madinah Mohamad, the secretary-general of the Ministry of Education.

Praising Madinah for her fluency in the English language as well as remarking on her clear thought process, Marina, a social activist and the daughter of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said, “Must say TS Madinah speaks very well, clear about what she wants to say and can speak off the cuff too.”

She also tweeted her obvious high regard for two schools in Malaysia for churning out bright students when she tweeted some background information about Madinah: “Ah…she’s an ex-Assunta and ex-BBGS girl…”

The Melta conference, being held from June 1-3, carries the theme “Innovative Solutions to New Challenges in English Language Education: Aligning National Outcomes to Global Standards”.

Among some of the more pertinent points of the keynote address that Marina tweeted were concerning Madinah’s stand that learning English did not make a Malaysian any less patriotic.

“As SG (secretary general) of MoE, my stand has always been that learning English doesn’t make anyone less patriotic,” Madinah said, followed by what Marina tweeted in which she said: “Msia should not be looking at best practices but at next practices.”

Madinah also said that an English literacy survey conducted among Year 1 pupils showed that 50.1% had basic literacy while the rest had very little and added, “Govt hasn’t let up in its investment in English teaching but outcomes not yet seen. It’s a journey.”

Marina, who is among the panellists at the conference who will discuss the role of English in helping Malaysia take the global leap, also tweeted two other statements Madinah made in her keynote address: “Teacher quality is one of the school-based factors in student proficiency. It smarts to hear jokes re (regarding) teachers’ bad English,” followed by “I like to call a spade a spade, to take the bull by the horns or else the cows (of education goals) will never come home.”

Obviously very taken up with what she was hearing, Marina tweeted in dismay, “Hard to report all of TS Madinah speech. Laying out MoE’s policies and programmes for teaching English in our education system.”

Melta, an international conference being hosted for the 24th time by the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association will feature high-powered academic programmes with more than 160 panels, paper and poster presentations, demonstrations and workshops.