KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said yesterday that Science and Mathematics should continue to be taught in English. He said the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) was introduced to ensure that the country's next generation had access to knowledge, as English was the global language of knowledge."People say the Malay language is the soul of the nation but this may no longer be the case as knowledge is now the soul of the nation," he said after officiating the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit 2009 here yesterday.
Mukriz, who is also Jerlun member of parliament, said checks with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka showed that there were only six documents on nano technology -- two papers each from Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and another two articles in magazines.
"But if you were to Google it, there would be hundreds of thousands of papers on nano technology in English."
He said history showed that the Japanese learnt German to understand German technology, before coming out with their own technological innovations.
"By the same token, we need to be proficient in English to have access to the latest technology," he said, adding that knowledge acquisition would enhance the country's competitiveness.
Mukhriz said it was his personal opinion that reverting the teaching of the two subjects to Bahasa Malaysia would jeopardise future generations, and that his constituency of Jerlun, was a rural area where the schoolchildren had adapted to PPSMI.
"You'd be surprised that the kids there use terms like 'multiply', 'subtract' and all. Of course, it's tough but who says we can't handle it?"
tunku : the sad part is the government did not hear the majority voices out there.they only hear from some so called "pejuang bahasa" NGO's and political parties. it was quite surprising to know that the government scrapped the PPSMI although 20 out of 32 cabinet members supported PPSMI.we are glad that Mukhriz stands for PPSMI, there are some were supporting it but after government scrapped PPSMI the made a u-turn,one of them is muhyiddin yasin who was supporting PPSMI all the way and now made a complete u-turn, he is now saying PPSMI is a failure.
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3 comments:
Tunku,Mahyudin and Najib has BETRAYED the MALAYS,THEY WANT TO SEE OUR FUTURE GENERATION MOVE BACK TO PRE INDEPENDENT DAYS.
Tahniah kerana Mukhriz masih bersuara bebas.
Muhyiddin sekadar rubberstamp.
YES we need English for sure but not at the cost of Maths or Science.
Teaching maths and science in english is a half cook policy to start with.
Instead of investing in english teacher the government invested in maths and science teacher and required them to teach the maths and science in english. WRONG.
The failure of the teaching maths and science in english is not a failure of the maths and science teachers but the failure of the teacher to master the language on the first place.
The government trying to use a short cut in getting the policy of teaching english to the maths and science teachers. WRONG.
The government should invest solely on english teacher to teach the language either outsource from other countries such as england, new zealand, australia or united states or rehire the retired english teacher.
Intention is good to teach english. The approach is totally wrong. We are utilizing wrong teacher to teach the english language.
Rejecting the use of english in teaching maths and science is not rejecting the english. We need to teach english so that it could be use for speaking, reading and communicating.
WRONG thing that the half cook policy had done is by using english in maths and science indirectly it would make the development of the malay language in science and maths stagnant and outdated.
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