Dual Medium of Instrcution for Mathematics and Science?

By Chia Huey

The Education Ministry is going to contemplate about the possibility of adopting the teaching of Mathematics and Science in both Malay and English. The use of two medium of instruction or better known as ‘Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris’ (PPSMI)  is not trivial in Malaysia context as the Education Ministry had once practiced it in 2003. However, the practice was abolished in year 2009 due to the disputable arguments from all over the public.

The practice had once been criticized for its inefficiency in uplifting the both English command of the students.  As the initial attempt of the study was to improve the English proficiency among the students, the result manifested from most of the major examinations in Malaysia such as UPSR, PMR and SPM showed the otherwise. It makes the public wonder if the objective of the implementation achieved or it had further worsened the condition.

Despite the controversy, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said some quarters were urging for the two subjects to continue being taught in English even the ministry had decided to reverse the medium of instruction from English to Malay.

The suggestion is, however needed to be treated seriously by outlining both the benefits and the drawbacks to the students. Examining from the Malaysia context, it is undeniable that most of the individual are at least bilingual or even multilingual. But the main thrust lies behind the fact; to what extent are they proficient at all the languages? This is especially crucial for teacher as they will be the one teaching and disseminating the idea to the students. The students often absorb what had been taught.  Therefore, if this practice were to be imposed again, the intensive training should be at first provided to the teacher to ensure that they are of enough capability to teach the subjects in English.

Teachers should at first equip themselves with the required quality before they could teach Mathematics and Science in English. (Picture adopted from Google)

Besides that, the learning material should also be thoroughly scrutinized before it can be officially used in the classroom. Often we find there are blunders discovered in the textbooks and the exercises which in a way confuse the students. Speaking of teaching in English, other than the technical terms, grammar and structure of the sentence should also be taken into account or otherwise, it can be the culprit of the decline in English proficiency.

Teaching the subjects in English does not only require one to be academically capable, rather, it is the commitment that minds sometimes. Have you come across the situation where the teacher tells you to not mind about the language, as long as the key terms appear? It is seemingly understandable why teaching in English does not uplift the English command of the students. Constant ignorance to proper English usage has made the implementation a mere waste of time and money.

In a nutshell, it is extremely important to study the suggestion discretely as there are still weaknesses identified from the idea proposed. Of course, if the idea is carefully probed, it will benefit the students, or it can be detrimental to the students instead. Ministries of Education, teachers, syllabus designers all play a part in this case or the students will be the victim eventually.

 Final question: Fair enough to take the students as guinea pig?

Be whatever the decison is, students' benefit should construct the ultimate concern of the whole implementation. (Picture adopted from The Star)