Ppsmi Malaysia Review: What Government Should Do Next?

PPSMI Malaysia Review: What Government Should Do Next?

by Mommy Lyna on July 20, 2009

PPSMI recent move to reverse implementation gave mixed reactions. Kampung people are so happy while urban one might not. There are parents who are considering sending their kids either to private or International school. In fact, some wealthy parents want to send their kids to study in Singapore!

What's actually happening?

Everyone knows, English is a must in modern economy. You can find abundance of scientific exploration, economic study & anthropological research in English than in any language in the world. If you compare the depth of knowledge discovered in BM, the gap is so obvious. Even if you combine those researches which translated into BM, it won't make any difference at all.

One may argue, Japan can succeed without English. The problem is; why Malaysia don't?

Japan is not the only country which able to strive & thrive with minimum English medium. Korea & Taiwan are some of them. But comparing these countries successes with Malaysian is a big mistake. Consider these facts:

1. Japanese people command a mindset that quality is compulsory. Whatever they did, they'll do their best possible effort. If you read the "Toyota Way" book you'll understand the level of quality satisfaction to the lowest level of their organization.

2. Korean undergraduate students start to stay up at night in the library 1-3 months before final exam. One of Abiy's friends told us that they bring small pillow for 10-20 min nap, after that they'll continue studying sampai subuh.

3. Taiwan is so famous with electrical gadgets. Their dopod handphone able to compete head-to-head with major global brand cell phones like Nokia & SonyEricson. What most people don't know is they work from 8am till midnight everyday. They have to do that because that's the only way to move faster than the technology.

Think carefully and compare those with our work principle. Are we "there" yet?

Secondly, there are argument that rather than we learn in English, why don't just translate those papers in BM. I know the idea is for most of us learn new things but honestly, how many books you've read in the past 30-days?

Malays-ian has been known to read the least, around 2-3 books per year at most. With such a low reading frequency and relatively low population, it makes the effort to translate all those knowledge from English become uneconomical.

Lastly, there are a lot of people saying that learning in English will reduce your patriotism. But to me, what's the use of patriotism without someone's respect? If so, it's just like living in a small island but think you are the best in the world; like syok sendiri without benchmarking.

Above all, learning, speaking & thinking in English won't make you orang puteh at all. I myself still eat belacan, budu & cencaluk. These jatidiri is about your ability to filter what you should believe and do and what is don't. Learning in English can do nothing to your jatidiri. It can only strengthen what you believe with vast knowledge you have upon learning from someone else.

If you think I really support this PPSMI, continue reading...

The biggest language gap we had is during the tertiary education in University. Significant numbers of our student had been acknowledged of having problems to learn science & technology mainly because of their inability to master English.

But what I don't agree is, why start implementing in primary school?

Primary school is just a place to expose small kids of the official learning world. As such, forcing huge and significant changes can create a lot of initial hiccups. I know, Dr M try to fast-track this language conversion so that it can be applied as soon & as fast as possible. It's just Dr M way of doing business.

However, statistics that a lot of pupils not able to catch up especially the rural areas show that we aren't dynamic enough to absorb significant changes in less than three years. I live in kampung before and I will tell you first hand that awareness should come first before enforcement in this market. It takes years to educate them "education is important" and guess what, should be another more years for them to understand "English is crucial".

I think, this PPSMI can be implemented but in stages. First maybe start with matriculation. 3 years later went down to SPM level. 5 - 7 years then start enforcement for PMR students and another 5 - 7 years before it reach UPSR pupils.

Doing it this way, the students can at least learn from their elder brothers/sisters, ample time for teachers to be converted in English medium and most importantly, give the students time to have faith in themselves that they can do it in English.

Therefore, reversing PPSMI for now can be good but once the students' results strengthen, government should consider implementing it back in stages.

Can you succeed without knowing English? Yes you can!

But don't complaint much if you are not employed or get good salary ten years after graduation. Reason, the only way to thrive in future is to conquer the world in whatever niche you want. You can't do this if you don't master the most widely used language on the planet...

PREMISES AND CONCLUSION

 CONCLUSION : Reversing PPSMI now is the best option for our

education system and it is beneficial to the students.

However, when the results of the students are strong

enough, the government should consider to implement it again through stages.

 PREMISE 1 : Implementing PPSMI in primary school can forcing huge

and significant changes that can create a lot of initial hiccups to the children.

 PREMISE 2 : Reversing PPSMI is good because most of the students

especially in the rural areas are not able to catch up with the subjects that are taught in English.

 PREMISE 3 : Implementing