Here's a video on the announcement:
And here was the public response;
And THIS was MY RESPONSE :
(well, it was what I had in mind, until I realized that I am a woman..)
(find out more when you click below)
Here, take a look at the verdict in full text;
Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu, memantapkan bahasa Inggeris:
Tawaran Baru Sistem Pendidikan Malaysia
Kenyataan Akhbar Timbalan Perdana Menteri
I cannot decide as to which was more traumatizing, the having to read the whole text above in order to try to comprehend the verdict to sticking to BM, or the reading between the lines or the verdict itself. Turned out, the failure of PPSMI is the failure of the teachers themselves to teach the subjects in English. Of course you cannot blame these teachers for they too were the product of our education system. How can you expect the blind to lead the blind, when you had the power to remove their cataract but chose not to. It makes you wonder though, weren't the people responsible for the birth of PPSMI suppose to look into this matter regarding the standard of English amongst teachers and settle that BEFORE embarking into PPSMI? What is the word I'm looking for here, ah yes.....foresight?
You can read what Mahathir's thoughts on this in the Star Online and in chedet. (But wait, wasn't he the one responsible for the emphasis of Bahasa Malaysia suatu ketika dahulu?) . In June 14 2009, Dr Chandra Muzaffar wrote an article in JUST, take a read in HERE
Here's the thing. This is the era of Science and Technology. The economy runs on technology for god's sakes. It's good that English Literature will be re-introduced because any knowledge, is an asset to a person, but isn't this goes to show that our government do not know where the priorities lie? We need world class Mathematicians (umm...even part time prostitutes cum mathematicians are welcomed in this dire need for expertise) and Scientists, more than we do Shakespears in this challenging millenium. Unless we are able to come up with our own technology, like Japan for example, and publish it into the proud Bahasa Malaysia (although those who understand English may not even need a translator, as, after all, most terminologi...I mean, terminologies were derived from "English word that had been tattooed an 'i' on their butts"), perhaps then, we can afford to be arrogant with Bahasa Malaysia. In the meantime, this arrogance is costing us in terms of the rat race towards technology excellence.
We did not send a poet to the moon, we sent a man of science there and don't even let me touch the topic of what it cost to get a spaceflight participant...oops...I mean an astraunaut to the moon. And let's not indulge on who benefited from that "Man on the moon" program. Point is, we sent the first Malaysian to the moon, a doctor, a man of science, not Pyan Habib or A. Samad Said, although there was a controversy of whether he should be called an astronaut, or cosmonaut or even a man for that matter. His manhood was questioned as evidenced by the circulating SMS that goes something like this; "Russians call him Cosmonaut, Americans call him Astronaut, Malaysians call him Gay-or-not". Okay, weren't you delighted that I digressed this time around?
Yes, the government sent a man to the moon, never mind the fact that he had to perform mysterious scientific experiment at the expense of the taxpayers ( I say mysterious because I cannot comprehend why "Sheikh Muszaphar performed experiments on board the International Space Station relating to the characteristics and growth of liver cancer and leukemia cells, the crystallisation of various proteins and microbes in space" - is it because we are sending our cancer patient to live on the moon? ) to allegedly inspire Malaysians of the next generation. So why is it that they are not consistent with keeping a high standard of Science and Mathematics to support this instigated inspiration?
And what does he meant by this statement ;
- Untuk mendedahkan murid dengan istilah-istilah sains dan teknologi dalam bahasa Inggeris, elemen sains dan teknologi akan diserapkan dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa Inggeris.
"In order to expose the students to Science and Technology terminologies, scientific elements will be incorperated into the English Language."
WTF?!! How can you incoperate scientific terminology into english if the article is a non scientific in nature? What, they're going to teach our children how to slip in some scientific terminology on "When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly's done. When the battle lost and won" (Macbeth Act 1, Scene I ). If you're going to put science into English, then why bother going to all that trouble when all you could have done is maintain Science in the english language?
I studied in UKM and if it is not for my parents' insistence and encouragement to read especially English books, then I would have become one of the students who cried in front of a reference book because they had to take extra time to read the dictionary in order to understand the content of the text in front of them. The same type of guys back in high school who love to tease people who speak English, calling them unpatriotic and what not. Guess who is having the last laugh braaaadddeeerrr.....
Indeed, this is a sad day for Malaysians. The people who do not put the trust in the system they help build ( or rather, destroyed), as evidenced by them sending their children to private schools ( I wonder on who's money), are the same people who insisted that we loose out on technology by setting a language barrier right across.
It's simple. What the government need to do is to invest in the education system. Make teaching an attractive if not lucrative profession. Send the existing Maths and Science teachers to courses (after all, that is what government sector is famous for...nothing gets done literarily because half the department had gone off for kursus) to enable them to teach in the English language. Only then, the PPSMI can succeed. You cannot run a program and brand it a failure when the failure came from your part, err....the part where you fail to manage.
The problem with governance, one tend to make a decision mainly to enable him to stay in power. When will they realize that one should not do what one need to do, rather, realize the right thing to do, and just do it. I know...it's wishful thinking....The matter has a simple solution, unfortunately, politics got the better of it...as always...
(oh and err...my nagging ends here...the rabbit whole below was due to technical error and the lack of time to correct it..it's okay to exhale now..)
...Click here to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.....
When the world turn their back on you, you show your butt to them...
3 comments:
It is like giving a drug addict what they want, and gain profit out of it. You give the uneducated people what they want even when you know it is hazardous for them, simply because you need to gain their votes later on. No better then the drug barons. Shame on them.
This current episode speaks out one thing loud and clear - and that's the fact that the current administration has absolutely no plans in bringing up the bangsa Malaysiato be competent in the global arena. You can do politics yes, but dont screw up the life's of our children aka future leaders of the country.
Never mind screwing up the future of the next generation, as long as their interests are protected eh? I wonder sometimes how they look at themselves in the mirror every morning......or go to sleep at night..
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