If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, then why shouldn't booth in the plural be beeth?

The Government's decision on whether the teaching of Science and Mathematics currently in English, should revert to Bahasa Malaysia will reveal yet another flip flop policy that is being treated like a political football to be kicked around.

In a sense the decline in the proficiency of English was inevitable following the switch in the medium of education from English to Bahasa in 1968. But really the extent of the decline could have greatly reduced if there had been a clear policy to the future role of English in our education system where a certain degree of bilingualism could have existed in our schools. Instead what we saw was the almost total elimination of English as a medium of instruction and almost 40 years after the tabling of the National Language Act 1967, there is still no clear direction as to the role of English except calls for it to be relegated to just another subject in schools.

Khairy Jamaluddin had recently recommended for the policy to be ditched on the grounds that rural students due to their poor command of English had failed to grasp the concepts of science and mathematics, compounded by the fact the teachers themselves are facing difficulties in teaching in English. Khairy then posed this question How do you expect to answer exam questions in English when it is not entirely taught in English in the first place?


With the benefit of hindsight many now realise that the transitional period for the switch to English was far too short especially since Bahasa Malaysia is so clearly entrenched a the medium of instruction. The paramount importance now is to ensure that students be given a solid foundation in English from the beginning of formal schooling. Teaching methods should have been adapted to suit the changed circumstances. Similarly teacher training courses should have been modified to help the teachers and lecturers cope better and faster.

Lee Kuan Yew who formulated the English medium policy in Singapore, made this assumption explicit when he said "Language is a key to the acquisition of knowledge. If a student is unable to understand a language, then he is unable to receive information or knowledge in that language. It is therefore crucial that a breakthrough must be made in the English language as early in life as possible".

Malaysia's goal should be to create a bilingual education policy with an aim to create a general populace who are bilingual and biliterate at a high level. No one can deny that in any given society today, English is the language of science and technology, while mother tongues were designated the transmitters of cultural values and norms. English should be maintained as the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics as its usage would encourage familiarity to embrace the massive corpus of knowledge available on the Internet and reference books. The government should invest heavily with the provision of proper infrastructure to help teachers and students in teaching and learning the two critical subjects in English rather than to simply ditch the policy.

On the flip side of the argument, not being able to understand English certainly has its benefit if this following story is anything to go by:-

In 1997, the Chief Minister of Selangor was arrested in Brisbane airport with the equivalent of AUS$1.26 million in currency in his luggage.

Australian law requires that amounts above $5000 be declared. The Chief Minister had no identifiable source of significant wealth and had been a school teacher before entering politics. In addition to the cash, he and his wife were found to own property in Queensland and another six properties in New Zealand.

The Chief Minister avoided prosecution for currency smuggling by claiming he misunderstood the customs declaration form because it was in English and he was not proficient in the language.