KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The fear among some quarters in the country that learning and using English would erode the importance of Bahasa Malaysia is unfounded, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.Dr Mahathir said he was criticised by nationalists for wanting the government to continue teaching Science and Mathematics in English, but English was the only language where Malaysians could gain much knowledge in these two subjects.
"Before I stepped down as prime minister, I introduced this system because I felt it was necessary for us to gain knowledge. If we are going to translate all the works of Science and Mathematics into Bahasa Malaysia, then it would take a long time and we would lose out.
"But lately there has been a debate about this and that we need to revert to the old system of using Bahasa Malaysia to teach and learn Science and Maths.
"The Education Ministry is going to decide on this very soon. There are pros and cons to this and I do worry about it. Our people should know how to read, write and speak the national language but at the same time to gain knowledge, they should learn and use English."
He said this in his keynote address at the English and Asia 2008 First International Conference on Language and Linguistics, organised by the International Islamic University Malaysia, here, Tuesday.
He said the amount of new knowledge was coming out "fast and furious" and Malaysians needed to grasp the knowledge, which were mostly in English.
"I hope I can stop the government from going back to using Bahasa Malaysia to teach Maths and Science but I am no more in power. We have to accept whatever the decision although it may not be that good for the country."
He said the reason that Malaysia lacked teachers to teach the two subjects in English should not be an excuse because teachers could be substituted by computer software, "which is better than teachers sometimes".
tunku : as a parent, i urge the government not to revert to the old system,that is using bahasa malaysia to teach and learn science and mathematics. bahasa malaysia will still be important as other subjects are all in bahasa malaysia.we won't be less malay or malaysian if we learn this to subject in english. it is for the benefit of our childrens.
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4 comments:
Dear Tunku,
I am a teacher of English and I agree with the importance of learning and the continuance of teaching English in Mathematics and Science. For those in doubt, we should ask the question: Is English something difficult to learn or is the difficulties in learning English are due to the administration and management problems which include psychological inhibitons of the change agents involved and pedagogy.
certainly there's nothing terrible about learning math and science in english.even if other subject 9exclude Bahasa Malaysia)are also included to be learned in english there will be no harm done whatsoever.
learning english is essential nowadays.we just cant deny the importance of english language in our daily life.
tak salah untuk mempelajari matematik dan sains dalam BI.cuma terpaksa diakui juga yang perlaksanaan ini pada awalnya dilakukan dalam guru dan pelajar "terkejut" dengan perubahan ini kerana berlaku dengan pantas dan tiba-tiba.
saya sebagai rakyat Malaysia sangat setuju untuk menggunakan bahasa inggeris sebagai bahasa dunia. Lagipun pelajar zaman sekarang saya tengok dengan mata sendiri pandai-pandai belaka berbanding dengan zaman sebelum ini. Cuma yang perlu ialah usaha untuk menguasai bahasa inggeris. Selain itu, ekonomi di negara ini sedang membangun, eloklah pelajar sekarang belajar bahasa inggeris supaya tidak ketinggalan.
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