More on PPSMI...my lust update -- Oops, my last!

and Desi's views mostly coincide with ***PKR's Sdr Tian Chua's:

Sighted in malaysia-today.net:


Reactions to scrapping PPSMI: After 6 years and RM4.5bil



Posted by admin
Thursday, 09 July 2009 20:21

I am saddened because the future of our children will be affected. They will be the victims. The government’s responsibility is to train the teachers, the problems cannot be solved overnight, because this is important for our future, we have to face the challenges. - Mahathir

By Wong Choon Mei, Suara Keadilan

After six years and spending RM4.5 billion, Prime Minister Najib Razak finally drew the curtains on the controversial PPSMI, a policy introduced in 2003 whereby Mathematics and Science were taught in English instead of in mother-tongue at vernacular schools and Bahasa Malaysia at government schools.
The originator of the policy, ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad, had pushed through the PPSMI during his last months in office, ostensibly fed-up with the stream of complaints from multi-nationals investing in the country that the standard of English – the lingua franca – was deteriorating too sharply.
But non-Malay groups accused him of trying to subvert their language rights while pro-nationalist Malays smelt a betrayal of their language in their own land.
“I am not sure if the latest decision is based on political expediency or because the government has suddenly realised PPSMI is a betrayal of the fight to respect and support our national language and has hurt many students especially those from the rural areas,” said Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Delayed implementation or political ploy
On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the PPSMI would be scrapped from 2012 onwards. The delayed deadline has raised eyebrows, sparking concern that Malaysians may be in for more policy flips in the intervening two-and-a-half years.
Indeed, there is concern that the latest decision was merely to boost Najib’s popularity as he nears his first 100 days in office.
Despite high profile trips to China and South Korea, the 55-year old has little to show except a string of controversial court rulings over the Perak coup d’etat that he engineered in February and which has badly dented the integrity and image of the Malaysian judiciary.
The lifting of a 30 percent bumiputra quota on new share listings has also annoyed Malay groups and economist have said it would do little to revive growth in the short term. An RM60 billion mini budget – the largest ever – too has failed to show much impact.
***“We should not keep using our children as guinea pigs. The policy of English to teach Math and Science failed miserably due to flip-flops in between. This latest decision is again not based on educational consideration but political expediency,” said PKR strategic affairs director Tian Chua.
Related Story:
Gov’t drops use of English in a bid to boost popularity »
——————————————————————————————————————–
Suara Keadilan appends below the reactions from leaders from both sides of the political divides sourced from media:

Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister
I was only briefed about it, so after the briefing I gave my suggestions. I said even if it could not be implemented at primary level, at least at secondary level it should be maintained, so it was not a consultation only briefing.
I am saddened because the future of our children will be affected. They will be the victims. The government’s responsibility is to train the teachers, the problems cannot be solved overnight, because this is important for our future, we have to face the challenges.
I am confident our teachers can learn English. If they can train English teachers, they should also be able to train science and mathematics teachers,” said Dr Mahathir.

Najib Razak, Prime Minister
Its spirit and objectives remain the same, we are just changing the approach.We can achieve the same objectives if we increase contact hours in English teaching so that students can become confident in other subjects.

Muhyiddin Yassin, Deputy Prime Minister
The government made the decision after studying closely research on PPSMI that shows that PPSMI could not be implemented as expected. This decision is not political, we made the decision not for political mileage. What is Manek Urai compared to the future of our children.

Hishammuddin Hussein
It was not an easy decision and it is impossible to satisfy everyone. I would also like to congratulate Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who is Education Minister for putting forward a convincing argument on the matter based on facts.

Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister
If a sufficient number of parents in urban national schools want to continue in English, they should have an option of learning the two languages in English.

Lim Kit Siang, DAP MP for Ipoh Timur
It has been a costly 6 year experiment and a failure. Why wait till 2012 to scrap? Let parents have choose and decide what they want for their children and not be guinea pigs for the government.

Syed Husin Ali, PKR deputy president
We are of the view that the decision falls short of expectation and is a disappointment. It deliberately delays what ought to be implemented early.
What is disappointing is that the Cabinet decided that the termination of this unwise policy should take effect only from 2012 and not immediately next year.

***Tian Chua, PKR MP for Batu
The policy of English to teach Math and Science failed miserably due to flip-flops in between. This latest decision is again not based on educational consideration but political expediency.

Yusmadi Yusoff, PKR MP for Balik PulauThe decision to cancel PPSMI is politically motivated as no research results has been produced. As it has constitutional and financial consequences which go into the billions of ringgit, PKR calls on the education minister to prepare a white paper on the decision.
Anthony Loke, DAP MP for RasahIt is an admission that the Barisan Nasional government has implemented the wrong policy. We call for the details of the government’s research on this issue to be made public, as it is crucial for everyone to know what had happened over the last few years when the policy was in place.
It is also regrettable that the voices of students were rarely heard in the whole PPSMI debate and that the students now did not have the final say. The government has to be reminded that it was entirely its fault for not heeding the advice of the people in the first place and making so many students its guinea pigs.
Anwar Ibrahim, Opposition LeaderAkhirnya kerajaan mengakui hakikat kepincangan dasar PPSMI dan mengambil keputusan memansuhkan sepenuhnya perlaksanaan dasar itu mulai tahun 2011. Setelah sekian lama pejuang bahasa, budayawan dan sarjana menyatakan kebimbangan dan menyuarakan bantahan terhadap PPSMI, alhamdulillah keringat dan doa mereka dimakbulkan jua.
Saya tidak pasti keputusan tersebut didasari motif politik ataupun kerana menyedari PPSMI merupakan satu pengkhianatan kepada perjuangan memartabatkan bahasa kebangsaan dan merugikan ramai pelajar terutama dari kawasan luar bandar. Pastinya kenyataan Menteri Pelajaran bahawa dasar ini dimansuhkan kerana mempunyai banyak kelemahan memperlihatkan sikap tidak bertanggungjawab kerajaan Umno-BN.
Sekonyong konyong mereka cuba menutup sebelah mata setelah RM 4.5 billion ringgit dana awam dibelanjakan demi perlaksanaan dasar tersebut walaupun mendapat bantahan segenap lapisan masyarakat. Keadilan tuntas menekankan selama ini bahawa satu kajian yang menyeluruh sewajarnya diadakan sebelum perlaksanaan PPSMI. Ternyata teguran yang diberikan masuk telingan kanan keluar telinga kiri.
Sayugia Menteri Pelajaran mestilah menyediakan jawapan yang kukuh dan bertanggungjawab untuk dibentangkan kelak. Rakyat berhak mengetahui mengapa selepas 6 tahun ianya dilaksanakan, baru kerajaan mengakui kelemahan dan kepincangan PPSMI.


UPDATEd @11.15AM:

From one ofmy regular news portal sites, The Malaysian Insider:),and the bonus is that it's FREE!


Saturday July 11 2009Related Articles
Pitfalls of Putrajaya’s half-hearted policy
The Great Malaysian brain drain – Koon Yew Yin
Tengku Razaleigh welcomes decision on BM for Maths and Science
Poet laureate wants equal sum to raise Bahasa status
English is broken, just fix it – Paul Si
Dr M speaks his mind
Muhyiddin: We have enough time to upgrade teaching of English
Government flip-flop reckless and irresponsible

BN parties divided over English U-turn

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 – Just days after the Malaysian government said it would scrap the use of English to teach maths and science in all schools, two parties in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition have called for the policy to be retained in secondary schools.

Others say individual schools should be allowed to choose whether they prefer to use English, Malay, Chinese or Tamil to teach the subjects.

At the other end of the spectrum, some want the policy to be abandoned now instead of waiting for three more years.

The calls from within BN – component parties Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Gerakan, and even Umno’s youth wing – are the latest round of responses to the government’s recent announcement that the six-year-old policy of teaching maths and science in English would be scrapped in 2012.

The issue has divided Malaysians, with most urban residents calling for the policy to continue, and those in the rural areas supporting its removal.

MCA central committee member Loh Seng Kok and Gerakan’s education bureau chairman Hsu Dar Ren argued for the policy to remain in place for secondary schools.

DESIDERATA: I will include a summary on PPSMI and the Government under Najib's FLIP-FLOP in my roundup on the last of the six-and-lust-predators -- oops, predicted-and-last, maybe also least! ! -- named as PM in RAHMAN theory -- Najib Tun Razak's first 100-days as the sixth Prime Minister later today. Godwilling/InsyaAllah!

Dr Hsu noted that many of those who opposed the policy were specifically against English being used in primary schools, where many rural students may not have had prior exposure to the language.

“But by the time they reach secondary schools, most of them would have already had a few years of English lessons,” he pointed out. “They would be able to understand simple instructions in English, which would be sufficient for maths and science to be taught in English effectively.”

The best combination, he said, was for students to learn maths and science in their mother tongues at the primary level, and in English at secondary level.

Others feel students should be given the option to choose.

The secretaries-general of Umno’s youth wing and the DAP both called for schools to be given the autonomy to choose the language of instruction.

“Give autonomy to local communities to decide the future of their schools,” said Umno Youth’s Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

DAP’s Lim Guan Eng, too, said: “The government could give an alternative, especially for those in the urban areas who want maths and science to be taught in English.”

But there were those who wanted the policy to be scrapped even earlier.

DAP leader Lim Kit Siang was among those who slammed the government for wanting to wait until 2012 before dropping the policy, known by its Malay initials PPSMI.

“If the RM4 billion (S$1.6 billion) PPSMI in the past six years had been a failure, what is the rationale and justification for the Cabinet decision to defer its abolition until three years later in 2012 instead of immediate implementation next year?” he charged.

The government, however, has so far defended its decision, saying it had not made it in haste.

“We had taken into account the time frame to make adequate preparations,” Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

“I understand that the champions of the language would want to start right away if they could. But we have to be realistic.” – Straits Times


POST-SCRIPT,or Desi's afterthought...(You are allowed to think after the fact, you know!...)

From Th3 MI:

Under fire from Dr M, Round 2?

Dr Mahathir is increasingly becoming annoyed with Najib’s policies. — File pic (visualise that!:(

KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — With more than 65,000 votes and counting, a poll uploaded on former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's blog is quickly becoming a headache for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's administration.

Dr Mahathir started the poll two days ago to gather public opinion to prove his point that Malaysians are against the government's move to scrap his policy to teach maths and science in English. More than 85 per cent supported him.

A day later, a still annoyed Dr Mahathir gave his assessment of Najib's performance during his first 100 days in office, saying it was “more negatives than positives”.

He also listed oil giant Petronas' revenues year by year, asking the government to explain how the money had been spent. As he must have known the answer, the intention was clearly to plant an idea that the revenues could be in jeopardy.

The needling was quite an irony as Najib had in the past been labelled a Mahathirite who took his cue from Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister. But Najib has gone his own way.

The PM has so far avoided comment, so clearly he is still hoping to avoid a collision course with his one-time mentor. Najib's supporters say the premier does not want open confrontation and that he believes the situation can still be managed.

The Sunday Times understands that Dr Mahathir has made known his disagreement personally to Najib. According to a top Umno leader who is close to Najib, the former premier was unhappy over the measures to liberalise the economy, including removing the quota on Malay corporate ownership, and the proposal to build a third bridge to Singapore.

Dr Mahathir was, of course, also unhappy over the scrapping of the policy on teaching maths and science in English.

As it has yet to develop into a clash, Umno leaders are hoping to avoid a second round of bruising attacks. The first took place about a year after Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became prime minister, when Dr Mahathir began sniping at him.

It shook Umno badly as Dr Mahathir relentlessly fanned the image of Abdullah as an incapable and hapless leader. Many blamed the attacks for creating a situation ripe for the Barisan Nasional's stunning losses in last year's general election.

Raja Ahmad Zainuddin, a Perak Umno leader, said the party needed to be united. But, he added, he was confident that Dr Mahathir was mindful of this, and believed his criticisms have been sincere.

“He has a right to criticise, but if it's a personal attack, that's a different story. I believe he won't,” he said.

Najib's aides have privately said the same thing — that the PM respects Dr Mahathir's views and is prepared to accept criticism of his policies, but hopes that it will not turn personal.

With Abdullah, Dr Mahathir's attacks had also begun with his policies. Later, however, he took personal potshots, poking fun at his hand-picked successor for allegedly sleeping on the job and attacking his family members.

Some Umno leaders think that Dr Mahathir will not go this far this time, partly because his son Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir is part of the government as deputy minister for international trade and industry.

A more pertinent reason, perhaps, is that Umno may begin to lose patience with a second battle between premier and predecessor. It may not take well to its president coming under fire yet again.

However, as political analyst Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said, even if Dr Mahathir took his attacks further, the severity of the damage may be contained if Najib continued to adopt the right measures.

He pointed out that Najib's approval rating has shot up to 65 per cent from 42 per cent when he started out as PM.

“Dr Mahathir is respected but the relevance of the attacks will be reduced and the sting minimised if Najib continues to perform well,” he said. — Straits Times