Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English – Too much confusion over a simple issue

by onthestreets.wordpress.com

It really riles me to see the Education Ministry seemingly listless after the latest roundtable discussion this week on the above subject.

You cannot improve on anything if you confuse yourself between symptoms, (root) causes, and the prescriptions. Basic Problem Solving 101. Ask any good medical practitioner.

What is the issue, really? Is it the weakness of our children in science and mathematics?

You cannot improve the students’ grasp of the two subjects if your approach and methodology is wrong, language notwithstanding.

I asked my 11-year son how much time he spent doing some kind of simple experiments in school during science classes. His answer was, “very little”.

Just to give a flavor of how backward our teaching methodology is….On the topic of temperature, for example, I asked my son how the teacher explained about the concept of temperature. His answer was, the teacher showed on the LCD projector some video of people measuring different temperatures using a thermometer. The teacher then asked the students to read about it in the textbook. Talk about experiential learning!

Poor Malaysian teachers; the Ministry could not even budget for them some simple glass thermometers and other apparatus so that they can teach a subject like science effectively. Is it any wonder our kids are not interested in the subject? (Note to taxpayers: Ask your Education minister how much he’s spending on properly equipping our schools’ science laboratories, not wasting money on some notebook PCs and LCD projectors that made certain quarters rich. Benchmark that amount with countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, or the United States.)

Again, what is the real issue? Is it our children’s weakness in English?

If the problem is really with poor command of English, how do you expect to improve it through science and mathematics when the teacher can’t even string together a proper sentence using the language?

“Listen, children, two times two, four…You know fraction? You see, one number on top of the other…What you call a number and a fraction?…”

It helps the children learn neither mathematics, nor English if they had to go through their lessons in the above manner. What it does is confuse the English learner and distract the math student, possibly leading him/her to lose interest in both subjects.

I believe pro-English quarters like the Parent Action Group for Education are not being objective in their stand. They are biased for their own agenda. I suspect their majority is from schools in well-to-do areas. Chances are these schools have a number of science and mathematics teachers with good command of English. No problem for them by going English.

If my guess is correct, the Go-English policy will further worsen the disparity between the haves and the haves-not. At the same time, it won’t help the less privilege students improve in any of the three subjects.

Make no mistake. This is not about the issue of downgrading Bahasa Melayu. Neither is it an issue about the importance of English as the international language of choice in commerce, science, and technology. This is about prescribing well thought-out solutions to the real problems.

Go back to basics. Teach English the way it should be taught. Teach science and mathematics using up-to-date methodology and proper tools and apparatus.

And, by the way, please make these subjects interesting to the students.