This issue has revisited us again. Malaysian authorities have voiced out their fear that majority of our students can't cope with learning Science & Maths in English. Students have been failing in these subjects due to the fact that they have not mastered the English Language itself. While i totally agree that the main problem here are the fact that our schools are lacking of sufficient teachers who r proficient in English and that students cant cope with the teaching of Science & Maths in English until they have considerable mastery of the language; i am appalled with their stand that " the teaching of Maths&Science in English was an insult to the national language and its ability to be an effective medium of instruction."
OK. 1st of all, our national language will not at all be affected or in anyway becoming inferior if we learn these 2 subjects in English. BM will still be our national n official language, a compulsory language for all schools in Msia. I am sure many would share my opinion on this.
On the other hand, I strongly believe that students will gain tonnes of benefits if the medium of instruction of these subjects remained in English. In fact, being proficient in English opens the door to a lot more golden opportunities nowadays.
Teaching Maths and Science is not really about improving English proficiency. It is because English is the lingua franca for science and maths. Most references and citations are in english. Moreover, if BM is used as the medium of instruction especially at tertiary level, we will lose competitive edge as a science book or reference will take a few years to be completely translated. By that time a lot of updates will be in place.
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