For once, I completely agree with Dr Mahathir...

Which is seldom openly admitted by Desi -- but there's that rare blue moon occasion with regard to the Government's policy reversal on PPSMI announced by Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday which was, rightly, headlined on most frontpages of newspapers this morning.
PPSMI is of course the popular acronym in Bahasa Malaysia for the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, and after six-and-half-years' implementation, the UMNO politicians used to experiment with the nation's education policies every few years, decided to "gostan" on a key policy that will affect the current schoolgoing kids and future generation at the most important --growing up -- stage of their "education-receiving" lives.

Here's a take from the NST Online, which did not "spin" too much on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's stand of expressing sadness and disappointment with the policy about-turn, although when I glimpsed the TV3 news at 8pm last night at the warong, I believed it quoted Muhyiddin as saying that the former PM was happy with the policy change; I will compare and contrast with other news reports to get a better picture for my not-so-free esteemed readers, so maybe I can spin my propaganda eh!:)

NST Online » Frontpage2009/07/09
English in Schools: Dr M unhappy with decision

By : Regina Lee
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PUTRAJAYA: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday expressed dismay over the decision to revert to teaching Mathematics and Science in Malay and vernacular languages.
"I am sad for the future of our young, who will find it harder later to master the fields of Science and Mathematics."

Asked about statistics that showed a decline among students' proficiency in the two subjects, Dr Mahathir said the figures were "inaccurate".
"Naturally, the results would differentiate between the rural and the urban areas."

He said learning English from Mathematics and Science was never the point of the policy -- a brainchild of his that was rolled out in 2003. Rather, it was to prepare students for the globalisation in the fields of Mathematics and Science.

Speaking at a Press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here, Dr Mahathir said it was the implementation, and not the policy itself, that should be blamed. He also said Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also deputy prime minister, and the ministry top brass had met him on Monday to brief him on the government's decision.

"I suggested that even if they don't have to have (teaching Mathematics and Science in English) at the primary level, they could always do it at the secondary level."That, too, was dismissed. There was no consultation at all. It was just a briefing."

DESIDERATA: I will elaborate with more comments later. Meanwhile, suffice at this stage for you to note the HIGHLIGHTED points, thus BOLDED. And come back to me with your comments after some reflection, Okay!

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Here's newbie (about two weeks old...) Malaysian Mirror take:


Dr Mahathir unhappy with decision

http://malaysianmirror.com/homedetail/45-home/4238-dr-mahathir-unhappy-with-decision


Wednesday, 08 July 2009 19:51
PUTRAJAYA – Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad regrets that his views had not been taken into account when the Cabinet decided on the issue of teaching science and mathematics in schools.
The government announced today that the two subjects would be taught in Malay effective 2012.
Writing in his blog, chedet.co.cc/chedetblog Dr Mahathir said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and officials from the Education Ministry had met him to brief on what the government had already decided to do.
“Although my views were sought, they are not reflected in the decision,” he said, adding that his views to the issue are written in his blog.
Wrong perception
Dr Mahathir said he was not pleased with reports that some Malay literary figures had opposed the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English.
“It is as if the policy would displace the Malay language as the language for knowledge and reduces its development as the national language.
“We must remember that education is not just a matter of advancing or developing a certain language. Education is about acquiring knowledge, all kinds of knowledge.
“The thing that can upgrade the position and advancement of language is the subject of the language itself and, at a higher level, the subject of literature.”
Dr Mahathir said science and mathematics, on their own, cannot help to develop any language, particularly the Malay language.
This is because the terms in science and mathematics were not originally Malay, he said, adding that a large portion of the words were Latin and later Anglicised.
“While we can (create words), there are not one or two but hundreds (of words) to think about. And some words are often the root words for others,” he said, giving ‘oxygen’ as an example.
“From the word ‘oxygen’, you get the derivatives like ‘oxygenation’, ‘oxidation’, ‘oxide’, ‘oxidants’ and others, among some 120 elements.’
Dr Mahathir said if all words were to be given Malay spellings, the Malay language would change to English. The spellings are different but they sound the same. Eventually, the Malay language would be no more.
He said science and mathematics are not static. They evolve continuously through research, discoveries, inventions and expansion through hundreds of working papers.
“Almost all of that is written in English. To translate them, we need people who are well-versed in Malay, English and the subject to be translated,” he said, adding that there were only a handful of people in just two or three areas of interest who have such capability at the moment.
Don't gamble on chidren's future
Dr Mahathir said it was unlikely that a person could acquire a PhD in science and mathematics by just studying in Malay and without an understanding of English.
He asked: “How many specialists are there in medical services who only learned in Malay, without any reference book in English?
“Is is true that students living in the rural areas cannot be proficient in English?”
He added that those who oppose the teaching of science and mathematics in English were also from the rural areas and often spoke in English.
In other fields, such as in the diplomatic corps and in the civil service, it is pertinent to be well-versed in English as they are expected to speak at international forums.
“It is important to acquire knowledge for the sake of advancing in the future. Let us not gamble on the future of our children just to show we are a nationalist and so protective of our language.
“The love for the language should not surpass the love for one’s nation,” said Dr Mahathir, adding that speaking in one’s own language does not necessarily makes one’s nation well-respected and admired by others.

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Okay, here's the "official" government version as represented by BERNAMA, the national news agency if you must know, which was used by theSun on its fronpage, continued on the second (as I also hold the print copy beside me as I type it...Yes, I subscribe at 30sen per copy to this "free paper" just for R Nadeswaran and his investigative A-team's sakes!...:):


Science and Maths in BM and mother tongue from 2012

PUTRAJAYA (July 8, 2009) : The teaching and learning of science and mathematics in national schools will revert to the Malay language effective 2012.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his both Deputy Education Minister,Datuk Wee Ka Siong (left) and Datuk Dr Puad Zakarshi Adek Hussein (right) during the press conference at his office inPutrajaya today.Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the teaching and learning of the two subjects in Chinese and Tamil national-type schools would be carried out in their respective mother tongue. Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said the cabinet today approved the suggestion by the ministry to empower the Malay language and strengthen the teaching and learning of the English language at all levels of schooling. "This strategy was drawn up based on the study and monitoring carried out by the Education Ministry on the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English since the policy was implemented in 2003," he said when making the announcement at the Education Ministry, here today. The first group of students who studied science and mathematics in the English language since Year One sat for their Ujian Penilian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) last year.
Muhyiddin said the implementation of the policy of using the Malay language in the teaching of the two subjects would be carried out in stages in Year One and Year Four in the primary school and Form One and Form Four in the secondary school beginning in 2012. However, he said, the change would not involve students in Form Six and matriculation class. He said in order to ensure that the implementation of the new strategy did not affect the achievement of students who were taught the two subjects in English, the teaching of and examination for the two subjects would be conducted in both languages until the last batch of students who were taught in English completed in 2014. He said the government made the decision after scrutinising the outcome of studies and surveys carried out on the teaching and learning of the two subjects in English which showed that it could not be implemented as desired. "What is implemented is the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English / Malay languages," he said.
Muhyiddin said monitoring by the ministry last year found that only a small group of teachers were using English language fully in the teaching of science and mathematics. "On the average, the percentage of English usage is between 53% and 58% out of the total time allotted for science and mathematics," he said. In addition, he said, only a small group of mathematics and science teachers in secondary and primary schools who took the English language Proficiency Level Evaluation test last year achieved the proficiency level. He said the precentage of students who scored grades A, B, and C for the science subject in the UPSR last year had dropped from 85.1% to 82.5% for the urban schools and from 83.2% to 79.7% for rural schools. "For mathematics, the achievement of urban schools dropped from 84.8% to 80.9% while the achievement of rural students dropped from 80.9% to 77%," he said. He said the gap in achievement between urban and rural schools in science and mathematics was becoming wider when the PPSMI (teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English) was implemented. Muhyiddin said the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study 2007 also stated that the position of Malaysian students in the science subject had deteriorated from the 20th spot in 2003 to the 21st spot in 2007. "For mathematics, the position of our students deteriorated from the 10th spot in 2003 to 20th spot in 2007," he said. He said studies by local universities revealed that the level of improvement in the command of the English language by students was nominal, that is, not more than 3% throughout the implementation of the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English. "The command of the English language among students, particularly in the rural areas, was still low making it difficult for them to understand the teaching of mathematics and science in English," Muhyiddin said. Based on this observation, he said, the government was convinced that science and mathematics must be taught in the language that could be easily understood by the students, namely Bahasa Malaysia in the national schools Chinese in the national-type Chinese schools and Tamil in the national-type Tamil schools. -- BERNAMA


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Let the PROTAGONISTS have their say,via The Malaysian Insider:

P1: Wrath of Tun M about to befall Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 – Ever since Datuk Seri Najib Razak took office as prime minister just under 100 days ago, the outspoken Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has held his peace and refrained from attacking the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
But today Dr Mahathir hit out at the Najib administration for “not listening to the voice of the people” when it decided to abandon the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English.
“I am not surprised over the disappointment and even anger towards the government’s decision on the teaching of maths and science,” he said.
“Seems to me like the government is not listening to the voice of the people,” the former prime minister said in a short posting on his blog today.
Dr Mahathir also appeared to be planning a campaign to stop the government from reversing a policy he had initiated six years ago just before he retired.
He has started a poll to ask readers of his blog if they supported or opposed the decision to now revert to teaching science and mathematics in Bahasa Melayu.
A separate poll conducted recently of voters in peninsular Malaysia by the independent Merdeka Centre showed that a majority of Malaysians wanted English to remain as the medium of instruction for the two subjects.
But yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the government’s decision to scrap the policy, bowing to pressure from nationalists and education activists.
Dr Mahathir, who had been informed by the DPM prior to the announcement, said yesterday that his recommendations were not taken into consideration.
He had suggested the government at least keep English as the medium of instruction for secondary schools.
The former PM also punched holes in the government’s arguments, and pointed out that if the government was now going to train more English teachers, they could also train science and mathematics teachers in the same language as well.
Dr Mahathir had been a strident critic of the Abdullah Badawi administration, and his attacks against the last prime minister had contributed significantly to the latter’s eventual downfall.
Last year, Malaysia’s longest serving PM even quit Umno and only rejoined the party this year when Najib took office. Since then Najib has taken pains to pay homage to Dr Mahathir.
But in recent weeks, Dr Mahathir had begun to seethe over some of Najib’s decisions.
Besides ignoring Dr Mahathir and deciding to skip the recent Penanti by-election, Najib has also disregarded the former PM over the “crooked bridge” to Singapore.
Dr Mahathir had also recently come out to say that the liberalization of the economy was not the right move by Najib.
The ongoing attempt by the Najib administration in trying to appoint his aide Omar Mustapha to the board of Petronas has also irritated Dr Mahathir who is still the national oil company’s adviser.
But with the flip-flop on the government’s English policy, Dr Mahathir appears to be preparing to strike back.

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P2: Najib defends scrapping PPSMI, ignores Dr M

Najib said discarding the PPSMI was a sound decision in light of its failed objectives. — File picBy Syed Jaymal Zahiid

PUTRAJAYA, July 9 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today completely ignored the concerns of his endorser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and defended the government's call to scrap the teaching of maths and science in English (PPSMI).
This is perhaps a sign that Dr Mahathir's influence over Najib is slowly waning.
Najib today said discarding the PPSMI, a programme Dr Mahathir introduced when he was prime minister, was a sound decision in light of its failed objectives.
The prime minister reasoned that although the government will discontinue the programme, its objectives will remain.
"Its spirit and objectives remain the same, we are just changing the approach," he told a press conference at his office here.
He said the government has introduced other measures to improve the standard of English among the country's students through the employment of quality teachers.
Currently, out of the more than 30,000 English teachers nationwide, the prime minister said only eight per cent were confident enough to carry out the PPSMI.
Dr Mahathir yesterday contradicted Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's claim that the former premier had agreed with the decision to scrap PPSMI.
He claimed that his views had not been taken into consideration and that Muhyiddin had only "briefed" him on the matter. He said that the decision to scrap PPSMI would affect the future generation greatly.
Najib, however, said that the fact that the government is considering making English a compulsory pass subject reflects its seriousness in the matter.
"We can achieve the same objectives if we increase contact hours in English teaching so that students can become confident in other subjects," he said, adding that the government is considering increasing English teaching time in schools soon.