| Columnists | ||
| 'Written by Helen Ang | ||
Sunday, 29 March 2009 00:11 | ||
Now that Najib Razak is set to become Prime Minister, we can look to a Cabinet reshuffle and irregardless of whether Hishamuddin Hussein remains Education Minister, the decision on Math and Science in English (PPSMI) should be announced soon. Dr Mahathir Mohamad will likely descend on Najib with the gale force of three Furies combined should his pet project, the PPSMI be overturned. The vindictiveness Dr M showed inexorably against Dollah Badawi for rejecting his Crooked Bridge and other legacy should be a salutary lesson. Allow me to present a premise. Blogging recently on the PPSMI imbroglio, MCA deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek posited that with China being a global economic power, Mandarin will become important like English. Mandarin is fast rising as the world’s most popular foreign language. The Economist reported on March 17 that a quarter of the world's population speaks just three languages, that is, Mandarin, English and Spanish. Dr Chua wrote that when he visited the Suzhou Education Centre, he met quite a number of overseas students and lecturers who were there for the ‘Mandarin experience’; a lot of business studies undergrads from European and American universities have exposure to at least one semester in China, he added. Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whose brainchild the PPSMI is, insists that because English is an important language in Math and Science, children must study the two subjects in it. By the same token, if 30 years hence China overtakes the United States as superpower, and Mandarin becomes the language of international trade, would Mukhriz Mahathir channelling his father (or Mahathir himself if he lives to be 110, which is not entirely implausible given his tenacity) then insist Malaysian schoolchildren should study Commerce and Accounting in Mandarin? Somehow I don’t think so. Malay is the lingua franca of Nusantara and even Singapore has adopted it as her national language albeit paying lip service. One cannot cavalierly discard ideological stance for expediency even though the uber political opportunist Dr Mahathir did just that – he has yet to publicly deny the allegation that during his student days at the King Edward VII Medical College in Singapore in the late 1940s, his race was registered as ‘Indian’. National language policy is not something to be morphed mid-stream if suddenly opportune. Meanwhile, Dr Chua takes another angle, postulating: “Language, in order to survive the test of time must have commercial value.” BM may not have as much utility abroad but even if it fails to fetch the highest dowry in the bride market, the language (it’s beautiful to me) nonetheless ought to be one most revered. Malaysians are not of the same race and we have different religions. Doesn’t this leave language as the pragmatic signifier for national cohesion? PPSMI not evidence-based policy The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMMS) results were released internationally on Dec 9, 2008; the very next day, Hong Kong and Singapore came out with official statements on how (well) their students fared. Malaysia on the other hand has maintained a conspicuous silence. In 2004, Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein set an objective to raise our relative standing in the TIMSS rankings. Judging by its own yardstick, the government did not meet the mark, notwithstanding the Ministry’s constant public relations that PPSMI is good medicine. In 2007 when TIMSS was conducted, the Malaysian sample batch was in Form Two. This means last year in 2008, this batch of students earlier tested for TIMSS were in Form Three and sat the PMR. Here’s the catch! Our mainstream media eagerly trumpeted that the PMR 2008 results were better than for preceding years. One might logically infer that the PPSMI has been successful since this cohort had gone through six years of Math and Science in English. But PMR is our domestic measure. TIMSS which is an international measure revealed that the very same set of students performed poorly. The lack of correlation between the internal PMR calibration and external TIMSS findings begs some questions of our exam syndicate. Can the Education Ministry answer the charge made by the Abolish PPSMI Movement (GMP) that the passing mark was lowered and syllabus simplified? Furthermore, last year some 13,000 fewer students took the STPM (exam providing option to answer Science and Math in English) – a drastic decrease of 19 percent or one-fifth reduction in number. There were 53,638 STPM candidates in 2008 compared with 66,048 in 2007. A grand total of 34 candidates sat the Further Mathematics T paper. For Mathematics T, there were 9,158 exam candidates last year compared to 14,219 in 2007. In Chemistry, the drop was to 8,970 in 2008 from 14,060 candidates in 2007; Biology: 5,124 from 8,099; and Physics: 4,053 from 6,359. Has the switch to English made the STPM Math and Science papers more attractive to students? No. Nobody’s against Malaysia aspiring to be a Science and Technology nation. Nobody’s against Malaysian schoolchildren mastering English. But I’m afraid that Dr M’s pronouncements from on high do not equate hard evidence that teaching Math and Science in English helps either. And I’m still waiting for the authorities to publish substantive studies or surveys to back Dr M’s claim. Human capital for K-economy One study has been conducted by Pemuafakatan Badan Ilmiah Nasional (Pembina) and titled ‘Teacher Competancy Level in the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English and its Implications on the Student Development.’ To read about the ‘double jeopardy’ – negligible improvement in English language coupled with declined performance in Math and Science, refer the Pembina report. Distilled from the 10-page report is this conclusion: “PPSMI has killed the interest and enthusiasm of students to learn Science and Mathematics in primary school” [See box at end of related CPI article 'Case for BM (2)']. Pembina surveyed 15,089 students: 5,404 students (35.8 %) were urban, 9,388 (62.2 %) rural, 109 (0.7 %) living in the interior and 188 (1.3 %) living on islands. The vociferous voices of urban parents supporting PPSMI you read on the Internet are disproportionately loud as the marginalised segment are not wired and thus cyber perception, especially if you read only in English, is not reflective of the larger or true picture. Pembina also summarised: “From a cost-benefit analysis in the context of investing in education for the long term, adopting PPSMI is not beneficial but on the contrary stunts the pupil’s intellectual attainment and will be a setback to future generations.” You’re probably tired of hearing Japan (and Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong) trotted out as the countries excelling in Math and Science where the kids learn in mother tongue.
For a change of air, try Scandinavia. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway are the Top 5 countries in the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI), 2008 rankings. Now somebody please tell me that Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch and Norwegian children are taught Math and Science in English. The KEI [see chart] aggregates economic incentives and institutional regime, education and training, innovation and technological adoption, and ICT infrastructure. Dr Mahathir envisioned propelling Malaysia to the forefront of the science and technology arena, like he built Putrajaya to position the country at the pinnacle of the OIC pyramid, like he built the Formula One circuit to race us on the fast lane, and created the Petronas Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) where ironically the musicians are foreigners. The Mahathir methodology is clearly debatable. As with the MPO approach, Dr M is not averse to borrowing from Westerners and he believes that riding the English language will rocket our country to lofty heights. It’s certainly true that an educated and appropriately trained population can create and use knowledge, and a nexus of organisations (universities, research centres, etc.) tap into the stock of global knowledge. But note that the proposition involves an older-in-age workforce, certainly not pupils in primary school. Mahathir’s Vision 2020 Dr Mahathir’s grand scheme is contained in the Third Outline Perspective Plan 2001-2010 (OPP3) which was the basis for the Vision Development Plan, better known for its ‘Wawasan 2020’ target. The OPP3, carrying a Foreword written by Dr M and under the aegis of the Economic Planning Unit, has charted out a perfectly sensible framework for developing Malaysia into a knowledge-based economy [See box for highlights of Chapter 5 of the report].
Source: Economic Planning Unit (EPU) OPP3 recommended that among other instruments, Science should be “taught in an interactive and lively manner” in schools and tertiary institutions, and the curriculum content be relevant and up-to-date. OPP3 did not propose that Science be taught in English in schools. The Ninth Malaysia Plan (MP9) 2006-2010 in its Chapter 12 on ‘Harnessing Science, Technology and Innovation’ follows the OPP3 general outline but provides greater detail. Among science, technology and innovation indicators, MP9 lists the percentage of R&D expenditure to GDP, number of researchers and ratio to labour, publication in international journals, royalties receipt and payment, and patents filed. [See box at end of article ‘Case for BM (2)’ on Malaysia patent count compared to Singapore and other countries] MP9 had this additional nugget: “Realising that human resource in Science and Technology form the core of scientific discovery and human innovation, efforts will be intensified to increase human capital investment and mastery of knowledge in accordance with the fourth principle of Islam Hadhari”. Hmmn, at least under the watch of our Hadhari PM, Malaysia did not experience such severe brain drain as occasioned by his predecessor. MP9 too did not advocate teaching schoolchildren Math and Science in English in order to develop science and technology. ‘Look East’, remember, siapa mudah lupa? When PPSMI was shoved down our throats in 2003, conventional ‘wisdom’ following Dr M’s tack was that Malay graduates were unemployed because they were poor in English, and PPSMI would raise the standard of Malaysian English. Dr M says the time is ripe for reverting to English. He doesn’t take into account the current situation, that is, our teachers have been educated under the BM or vernacular curriculum for four decades already. Therefore, forcing these teachers instruct their pupils in English will hamper their effectiveness in the classroom. He has today tacked again; After all, the man is famous for shape-shifting as well as his poor recall (witnessed in the royal commission inquiry into the Lingam tape when he conveniently couldn’t remember his past actions). Dr M’s present contention, which departs from the one he employed seven years ago, is that it is impossible to translate the phenomenal number of scientific tracts all into English. (Who says we should? His is a spurious and sidetracking assertion). He blogged about needing English to grasp the theories of Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Oppenheimer and others. He wrote “the theory and application of advanced science in inventions and the manufacture of sophisticated equipment such as telephone, modern weapons, rocket and space satellite stations, fighter jets and commercial airplanes, submarines, laser, microchip and hundreds of other appliances” require understanding English. (Er, Scorpene? Sukhoi? North Korea’s first satellite?) Be that as it may, if a researcher is required to access doctoral-level writings, then it is expected that the individual access source material directly. However, this individual is clearly neither 7 years old nor 11 years old. The ones requiring impeccable English Dr M then talks about Malaysian ambassadors, diplomats and staff in the Foreign Ministry who must speak good English. His children attended elite boarding school; his grandchildren study abroad and in international school. It’s the usual ‘Do as I say, don’t do as I do’ edict foisted on the majority who are in national schools. How many belong to the Mahathir clan social circle to be hobnobbing with ambassadorial families, compared to our youths selling computer equipment and cellphones in Low Yat Plaza or collecting tickets at toll booths? In Sabah and Sarawak, many of the rural kids are getting grades D and E in Math and Science. The ones in Perlis and Kelantan are faring dismally under PPSMI. Oh well, never mind, let them eat cake while we create a Malaysian Microsoft and home-grown Intel in the Multimedia Super Corridor. Should the language medium be tweaked so that those who already speak English at home or with their friends can further excel, or should we prioritise universal primary education for optimal achievement across the mean? With average students, English is not the language of their social milieu. They speak Malay and Chinese. If you’ve ever taken public transport when youngsters are on board, you’d know this from their conversations. Regarding the PPSMI debate presently, Dr M has tried to turn the tables by accusing the ‘Abolish PPSMI’ crowd at the demonstration a few Saturdays ago of acting “more Malay than Malay”, and refusing to communicate in any other language except Malay for nationalistic reasons. The political science of Mahathirism I’m even more flabbergasted by this next statement emanating from Dr M: “[Singapore] may use English for their education but they can still go wrong. But we want to use English only for science and mathematics and these two subjects are based on truths and logic – not on how clever you are in making decisions or explaining things.” Dr M’s train of thought is revealing of his subconscious. Is he implying that Mandarin, Malay or other languages are less able than English to carry ‘truths and logic’? The many distinguished academics and educationists opposing PPSMI may not be as “clever” as Dr M “in explaining things” but they possess better clarity as they are not perilously ‘Malay Dilemma-ed’ as he is. It is Dr Mahathir who wrote “I am a Malay not because of the language I use when thinking or dreaming. I am Malay because ethnically, lingually, culturally and religiously I am a Malay and I regard Malaysia as my homeland”. He’s forgotten how he declared he would pack up and leave the country should ever Anwar Ibrahim become PM … but faulty memory aside, here’s another what-if conundrum for Dr M. By convention, the Umno Youth chief gets a ministerial post or maybe Deputy Minister; outgoing Youth chief Hisham is elevated to Umno vice president and may vacate the Education Ministry to move to a more senior portfolio. If Dr M found it a toss whether his venom is best spewed at Anwar, Dollah or KJ, then he’d be sorely tested to imagine the incoming Youth chief taking over from Hisham. Khairy Jamaluddin has said in Press interviews that he does not believe in PPSMI for primary school. |
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Mahathir merajuk, ‘let them eat silicon chips’
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