Mahadzir should explain what is the educational justification to use English to teach mathematics and science when  Chinese primary schools in Penang scored 71% and 69.1% pass rates in the Std V Assessment Test in 1971 as compared to 58.8% and 57.4% for English primary schools for both subjects respectively and Chinese primary schools now average over 90% and 80%  pass rates for both respective subjects

(Penang, Saturday): It is most unfortunate that the proposal for the use of English to teach mathematics and science has been treated as a “political football” by the Barisan Nasional component parties instead of being addressed seriously as an educational issue.

The People’s Progressive Party is the latest Barisan Nasional component party to come out publicly in support of the proposal for all primary schools, national, Chinese and Tamil,  without any sound educational reason, as its primary objective is more to send the message to the UMNO leadership that it is the most dependable component party in the Barisan Nasional on this issue, unlike the others, such as SUPP, which after publicly declaring its support for the use of English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese primary schools has started to waffle, or MCA and Gerakan which have developed a split personality in their public stands and private Cabinet positions.  

Yesterday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Education Ministry, Datuk Mahadzir Mohd Khir claimed   in Penang  that a high-level committee comprising the Education Ministry director general, educationists and linguistic experts had done an in-depth study of the proposal before the Cabinet approval on July 19.  

If so, DAP calls on the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad  to make public the Abdul Rafie Committee Report for study and debate by the public, in view of the strong views held by educationists like former University of Malaya Vice Chancellors, Royal Professor Ungku Aziz, Professor Dr. Syed Hussain Alatas and the President of Malaysian Islamic Science Academy (Asasi) Dr. Shaharir Mohamad Zain, that studies worldwide have shown that the best way for pupils at the primary level to master their studies is for the knowledge to be  channeled through their respective mother-tongues.  

It is very clear that the Abdul Rafie Committee had not solicited the views and inputs of Chinese and Tamil educationists before making their recommendation to use English to teach mathematics and science in Chinese and Tamil primary schools – which explain the unanimous opposition of Chinese educational bodies like Dong Jiao Zong as well as Tamil educationists in a meeting of a group of Tamil school headmasters, teachers and parents organized by the Malaysian Tamil Educational Research Development Foundation in  Kuala Lumpur yesterday.  

Mahadzir said that the move to use English to teach mathematics and science in all schools should not be construed as indicating failure in the country’s education policy. He said current and future trends in the international scene indicate growing emphasis in the electronics and information, communications and technology era.  

He asked: “We are talking about Digital Divide and the ICT era. Must we be left behind just because we had refused to learn English?”.  

Mahadzir was being most irresponsible in refusing the understand that there is full support for efforts to raise English proficiency in all primary schools, whether primary, Chinese or Tamil, and for Malaysians to be bi-lingual or trilingual.  The issue in contention  is  whether the proposal to use English to teach mathematics and science in primary schools from Std. One is educationally sound and a good idea – or  whether it is educationally most controversial and questionable as it  might lead to the decline in the academic standards of the pupils in all the three subjects.

Can Mahadzir for instance explain what is the  educational justification to use English to teach mathematics and science when  Chinese primary schools in Penang scored 71% and 69.1% pass rates in the Std V Assessment Test in 1971 as compared to 58.8% and 57.4% for English primary schools for both subjects respectively, and when Chinese primary schools now average over 90% and 80% pass rates for both these subjects?  

In 1972, I had asked the then Education Minister, then Datuk Hussein Onn, for the comparative results of the various streams of primary schools for the Std. V Assessment Test in 1971 for the various subjects, and the results for the Penang primary schools were  as follows: 

Percentage rate  of failures for Penang primary school pupils in 1971 Std. V Assessment Test

                                                   Mathematics     Science

                                                           %                     %  

National primary schools            37.90               35.61  

Chinese primary schools            28.69               30.96  

English primary schools              41.22               42.61  

Tamil primary schools                 72.19               65.89

In the past 30 years, the academic attainments of Chinese primary schools in all the three subjects of mathematics, science and English have improved even further when compared to national primary schools, averaging over 90% and 80% passes respectively for mathematics and science, as shown by the UPSR results in 2000 as given in the Education Development Blueprint 2001-2010, viz:    

Jadual 2.6

Prestasi Mata Pelajaran SK, SJKC dan SJKT dalam UPSR Tahun 2000 

Instead of focusing solely on the proposal to  use  English to teach mathematics and science as the only means to raise English proficiency in the primary schools, the time has come for the Cabinet to think of more effective ways to raise the standard of English not only in Chinese primary schools, but also for national and Tamil primary schools.  

There is no disagreement whether among political parties in government and opposition, or in the Malaysian civil society, including Chinese and Tamil educational bodies, on the urgent need for a special programme to check the decline in the standard of English in schools and universities, and the Government should be seeking consensus instead of trying to force a showdown on the issue.  

For this reason, the Cabinet on Wednesday should seriously and urgently decide on convening an all-political party and educational organizations roundtable conference to consider the most effective way to raise English proficiency in the primary schools, without jeopardizing the academic attainments in mathematics, science and English. 

(4/8/2002)