Tuesday 19 Mar 2024
By
main news image

SHOULD we go back to English-medium schools or not? This is one national education debate that has refused to go away since English ceased to be the medium of instruction in Malaysian schools in the late 1970s.

It resurfaced recently when the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, suggested that Malaysia should emulate Singapore’s single-stream education system, which uses English as the medium of instruction.

He said that Singapore’s system has proved successful for it has not only helped to unite the various races in the island state but also produced a society that is competitive to face present and future global challenges.

Sultan Ibrahim’s stand on the use of English as the medium of instruction in Malaysian schools should not have come as a surprise. His consort, Raja Zarith Sofiah Sultan Idris Shah, had previously said that she would support any plans by the Education Ministry to set up English-medium schools.

In 2013, after opening the 22nd International Conference of the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association, of which she is the royal patron, Raja Zarith Sofiah said, “Having an English-medium school will serve as an alternative for parents who want their children to be proficient in English.”

Obviously, the Johor Sultan is not the only Malay ruler who has openly called for the revival of English-medium schools nationwide. Echoing the call recently was Negeri Sembilan Prince Tunku Zain Al-Abidin Muhriz.

Tunku Zain said having English-medium schools would provide an enormous, positive impact to students in particular, and society in general, especially with the advancement of science and technology, in which English is widely used.

By virtue of their stature, the Malay Rulers traditionally command widespread respect and influence among Malay society. Needless to say, adding their voices to this rather divisive and emotional language debate has far-reaching implications.

Yet, it would be too idealistic to expect a fundamental change of policy in the near future, given the formidable opposition by various vested interest groups. Besides the Malay nationalists who have vowed to defend and uphold Bahasa Malaysia’s status as the national language in all fields, there are concerns that the revival of English-medium schools might, over time, wipe out the vernacular schools that use Chinese and Tamil as the medium of instruction.

There are also doubts as to whether the reintroduction of English in schools can improve the overall quality of education, considering the varying degrees of disparity in the standard of schools in each state, due to diverse socio-economic and geographic backgrounds.

Make no mistake, the use of English as the medium of instruction is not a magic wand that can fix with a single wave all the problems in our present education system that have accumulated over the years.

In fact, the shortcomings of our country’s education system has been the elephant in the room for far too long. Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who also holds the education portfolio, publicly admitted that he was shocked at the poor performance of Malaysian students in international assessment tests, despite the millions of ringgit spent on improving the education system.

Apparently, he was upset over the the poor performance of Malaysia students in studies such as Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

Without fail, a central theme in any debate on the country’s education system is the falling standard of English language skills. A 2013 survey by online recruitment agency JobStreet.com found that 55% of the senior managers and companies who took part unanimously agreed that a poor command of the English language was why undergraduates remained jobless.

Another critical dimension to the debate is national unity. Herein lies the greatest and saddest irony. We know that one of the main reasons for dropping English as the medium of instruction in schools back then was to achieve unity among young Malaysians via the use of the national language.

But almost 40 years on, the result is worsening ethnic stratification in schools. The proportion of Chinese students enrolled in Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina — primary schools where Chinese is the medium of instruction — rose to 96% in 2011, from 92% in 2000. This means that only 4% of young Chinese go to national primary schools, where Malay is the medium of instruction. In these schools, 97% of the students are bumiputeras. In the case of the Indian community, 56% of primary schoolchildren attend Tamil schools.

This sad state of affairs must have prompted the Johor Sultan to openly appeal to the people and government to be “open-minded” and be prepared to use English as the medium of instruction to achieve better national unity among children from different ethnic backgrounds.

Yes, we must be open-minded, especially if we care to remember history. Many English-medium schools were established long before this nation was founded in 1957. For example, Penang Free School was formed in 1816, almost 200 years ago!

All these schools are indeed part of our nation’s educational heritage and should rightly be cherished, treasured and celebrated, considering their immense contribution to the nation over the years.

What could be more meaningful than seeing the return of English-medium schools, to continue the mission they were established for in the first place — to provide affordable, inclusive and quality education for all in English.

Maybe we should put aside the dreaded question of “how to” for now and focus on “should we?” I am sure if we answer in the affirmative, that is, we should bring back English-medium schools, the issue of how to bring about that big change — through a process of decentralisation or some other way — will be resolved in due course. Remember, where there is a will, there is a way.

In the final analysis, the fact that the debate on bringing back English-medium schools is still raging today reminds us that, perhaps, we never properly appreciated their merits until it was all too late.


Khaw Veon Szu, a former executive director of a local think tank, is a practising lawyer. Opinions expressed in this article are his own.

This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 22 - 28, 2015.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share