OCT 21 — The teaching of science and mathematics in English or PPSMI is once again at the forefront of the news headlines. Over the past few months, the Parents Action Group for Education (PAGE) has been lobbying hard to keep the PPSMI policy alive, citing various reasons for doing so.

As parents whose children go to one of the schools in Petaling Jaya that supports the continuation of such a policy, my wife and I received a passionate plea last week to sign an online petition in support of PPSMI.

We have duly done so as we believe that the teaching of science and mathematics has indeed helped my children with the understanding of English as a whole. Also, my children too have given feedback that their interest and proficiency in English have peaked, using English as the medium of instruction for science and maths.

There have been hoards of people who have spoken out about this issue and written in to the press expressing their views, either supporting or taking their stand against it. I too have written about it on this portal.

In July, I wrote about how a fully functioning democracy is founded on the bedrock principle that a government is elected by the people, for the people. As such, it necessarily means that when governments do not govern according to the wishes of the people, that government could then be booted out, through free and fairly administered elections.

Couple this with the current mantra of this current administration, “People first, performance now,” under the tutelage of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, I am frustrated and disappointed that the government isn’t listening to the wishes of its people.

So often, the Right Honourable PM states that he wants to achieve a developed status for Malaysia, and to do so by being inclusive and by listening to its citizens as espoused through his 1 Malaysia policy.

But when the rubber meets the road, his 1 Malaysia tagline, remains just that — a tagline, fit only for the billboards, TV commercials and rhetoric speeches made in public.

From what I understand, PAGE has on several occasions tried to submit a memo stating its stand on why it believes PPSMI should continue. Rational reasons from how students have fared better in their examinations to the argument that parents have a right to choose the best possible education for their children as enshrined in the Education Act 1996 have been put forth.

And yet there has been a deafening silence on the part of the incumbent government over this issue.

In the run-up to the Sarawak state elections earlier this year, news reports noted that the PM was willing to re-consider this issue with an open mind. Of course, many have said that this was merely another empty election ploy on Najib’s part, which is not surprising given how the PM has shown how he’s often flipped-flopped on so many crucial decisions.

But it was his deputy and education minister who drove the final nail into the coffin on this possibility when he said that there will be no going back to the PPSMI policy.

There are many reasons why I find this whole issue objectionable, besides the clear politicking of this issue. But by far for me, the greatest indictment to this administration is the fact that the moving from the PPSMI to MBMMBI (the reversion to Bahasa Malaysia for science and maths) will definitely set the country back.

What remains to be seen is how far we’re going to be set back.

It’s completely oxymoronic to speak about wanting to take Malaysia to the next level of achieving a per capita income of US$15,000 (RM46,500) in tandem with becoming a developed nation by 2020.

This very group of people are the ones who are expected to form a large part of our workforce by then are being shackled from achieving their highest potential without being able to master English, especially in science and maths.

As I’ve argued in another column before, the world is continually being globalised and the speed of with which it’s happening isn’t measured in terms of years anymore, but instead by months.

Even China with all its economic prowess and homogenous use of Mandarin has realised that the language of international trade, diplomacy, technology, and progress is English. As a result, China itself is scrambling to master English the lingua franca of this world.

Our failure all these years to address this problem has resulted in deep-seated problems for Malaysia, something that has recently been documented in a World Bank study.

An advanced excerpt of the study to be released later this month noted that “as NUS kept pace with the demands of a growing economy that sought to become competitive internationally, with English continuing as the language of instruction and research, University Malaya began to focus inward as proficiency in English declined in favour of the national language Bahasa Malaysia…”

While I’ll readily acknowledge that not all of Malaysia’s dire educational challenges are affected by this issue alone and that there must be a much more holistic approach to healing our education system, what I find difficult to accept is that parents who want to continue raising the bar for their children can’t do so by invoking their right to run a parallel system and to choose PPSMI in favour of MBMMBI.

And with so much politicking in the air, empty pre-election promises, tap dancing around this issue, and without clear decisions to be made by the PM over this issue, we have lost our right to act in the best interest of our nation.

That said, I still believe that there is time for the Right Honourable PM to act in a bid to tackle the sliding proficiency in English — but he’ll need to do so immediately and put to rest this issue by allowing those who want the PPSMI policy to continue so that parents will be granted the right to choose what’s best for their children.

For the sake of our children, and the future of this country, I hope he will act — and to do so swiftly and decisively.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.