Make national schools the school of choice

Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim

WE refer to “Unesco goals fail, but must press on” (NST, Sept 28) in its plan to attain “Education For All (EFA)” by 2015 and “Malaysia’s tenure at Unesco highly successful” (NST, Sept 29), on its educational successes.

We, however, wonder if the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) may have failed Malaysia by recommending that the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (Malay acronym, PPSMI) is best learnt in the mother tongue believing that the languages spoken by Malaysians are only Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. This heavily influenced the decision by the government to abolish PPSMI after six years of implementation.

Our education system is unique in that it originates from the British education system, which existed in this country much longer than its successor, the Malaysian national education system. Many Malaysians had the privilege of learning in English medium schools (EMS) until 30 years ago.

Many pupils in today’s schools have parents as well as grandparents who are the products of EMS, making the pupils’ mother tongue also English. This makes English not only a mother tongue language for many Malaysian households but also the second language of the nation after Malay.

“The decision to abolish the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English policy, in operation since 2003, has many parents in disagreement with the government’s decision. Parents want the policy to continue in the schools that can cope with this good policy.”In our letter to the director-general of Unesco, Her Excellency Irina Bokova, dated Sept 19, and personally handed to Dr Lidia Brito, director, Division of Science Policy and Sustainable Development, Natural Sciences Sector, representing her excellency at a recent international forum in Kuala Lumpur, we wrote, “Many parents are concerned over the direction of the Malaysian education system with its mission to achieve sustainable development in education and the provision of basic quality education.

The “haves” are the elite, high-income households made up of 20% of Malaysia’s population. They are able to afford private and international school education with English being its main medium of instruction while the “have-nots”, comprising the remaining 80% who do not have the same opportunity, are further segregated by the types of mother tongue schools available, making racial segregation a clear and present danger.In the quest for providing equal opportunity for all, we see the value of PPSMI. The school system is not only segregating the many races due to mother tongue-type of schools but has also created a class barrier between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.

The wise words of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, “We must shun the instinctive primordial tendency to retreat into the familiar shell of narrow nationalism and protectionism. Rather we must meet this challenge head on by collabora-ting to steer the process towards a more sustainable, equitable and just outcome,” still remains to be proven.

Our recommended solution to Malaysia’s educational predicament is to make the national school, the school of choice. By having the option of science and mathematics in English, the national school will be more desirable for all ethnicities and social strata. This is of utmost importance for national integration.

We would like this country to achieve quality education and reduce inequality between the societal classes. Our free and peaceful future depends on it.