The announcement was made today.
Beginning 2012, students in Year One and Year Four in primary schools, and Form One and Form Four in secondary schools, will learn Math and Science in Bahasa Malaysia.The reason?
"Only 19.2% of secondary teachers and 9.96% of primary teachers were sufficiently proficient in English," he said, explaining the Government's decision to revert to the old system.Seems silly isn't it? The patient has a rotting arm, and the Government's solution to the problem is to chop off the head.
While there is certainly some nationalistic pride behind having a national language capable of teaching science and math (this is debatable), it probably isn't in the best interest of the students who will wind up having to re-learn everything in English anyways once they start tertiary education, at least for those who aim to pursue those subjects. And for those that have no ambitions to study beyond a secondary education, having so little proficiency in English is not going to be much help in the "Real World" (TM) either.
With English having a prominent role in the schools, it was a step in the right direction, painful as it was. Come 2012, the education system is going to gostan. Do you see what i did there?
