We should continue in English!

UPDATED ON 12.14AM, 13 JULY WITH LATEST RESULT FROM CHEDET:

THE QUESTION:

THE RESULT FROM TUN DR MAHATHIR'S BLOG AS OF 4.25PM, JULY 9th

THE RESULT AS OF 1.29PM, JULY 10th

THE RESULT AS OF 1.08PM, JULY 11th

THE RESULT AS OF 12.14AM, 13 JULY

Tun Dr Mahathir's poll in his blog shows that Najib's administration not listening to the people's voice. It's important to continue the policy on using English to teach Mathematics and Science (PPSMI). Emphasis must be given on English, it does not mean that I’m not respecting Bahasa Melayu and mother tongue as English is really assisting a lot in the future of Malaysians. I dread to think what will happen to our future generations while the government and these ethnic based groups gamble with our student’s future.

I am particularly concerned that the government is considering changing the teaching of Mathematics and Science from English to the Bahasa Melayu and mother tongue. I always believed that the government made the right decision to change the teaching of these two subjects to English back in 2003 and we should not make a U-turn now.

Furthermore, with English, you can do research on the Internet to supplement and enhance our knowledge, much more than what you can get from books. More often than not, you will also find up-to-date information on the Internet compared to what the books contain. However, to use this important tool, you need to be well versed in English, not Bahasa Malaysia or Mandarin or Tamil.

Considering the critical shortage of textbooks, journals, and other literature in other languages, teaching the two subjects in English would facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge by our students. Some parties also fear the threat of the erosion of their ethnic roots, culture and customs in this country and they believe that the way to prevent this erosion is by ensuring that schools teach important subjects in their respective mother tongues.

But is this a threat real? Let me be the first to tell you that I am a Malaysian Indian that received primary education in Chinese school. Besides learning Mandarin, of course I did not fail to remember Tamil, my mother tongue. My English is not excellent when further my study to secondary school. Because of that, I had difficulties in my class. All the subjects in primary school were in Mandarin. The subject that only in English is English, there were no any action or effort to allocate extra hours to the subject. This crisis does not happen to me alone. I believe most of the students in Malaysia experienced that.

So, let’s support PPSMI for a better Malaysia. Cast your vote in Tun's Blog- http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog