Former prime minister Tun Mahathir (oh, I missed him so much) had expressed dismay over the decision to revert teaching Mathematics and Science in Malay and vernacular languages. "I am sad for the future of our young who will find it harder later to master the fields of Science and Mathematics". He said learning English for Maths and Science was never the point of the policy - a brainchild of his that was rolled out in 2003. Rather it was to prepare students for the globalisations in the field of Maths and Science.
Yap, me too, feel the same way. Pity my girls. There seems to be no consistency in our current education policies. The government keeps changing the education system every now and then, making the students more confused. We are going backwards, we are supposedly entering a modern era but this is taking us back to the past. English is vital for one to survive in the outside world and if we don't master it, it will be difficult.
It is definitely not a wise move either. It is really important for children to learn English as much as Malay is important. All our present leaders can speak English because it is more convenient for them when dealing with people. For example, Tun M himself, Pak Lah, Najib, Mohd Nor Yakcop, Zeti Aziz and of course, my dearest Rafidah Aziz (who can switch from BM to English in a split second ... I really admire her for this).
To be fair, while there is a need to use Bahasa Malaysia to mainly promote the bahasa muhibbah sprit just like Indonesia with her Bahasa Indonesia, there is bound to be grouses on how this would benefit our children, many of whom would be venturing out to study and work abroad, and if they don't, would still need to be proficient in their daily dealings even here. The bigger picture is still the argument that in order to compete globally, mastering English is not a luxury, it is a MUST.
In fact, kat office I pun, meetings are mostly conducted in English eventhough half of the corum are Melayus.
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