KUALA LUMPUR, 9 July 2009: The government has allocated almost RM5 billion to strengthen the teaching and learning of English in schools, the Dewan Negara was told today.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said the ministry had also provided training for English teachers to help them raise students’ proficiency in English, in the wake of the cabinet’s decision yesterday to revert to the teaching of mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia.
“We will also include various modules like listening, speaking, writing and literature with focus on grammar. We will ensure that English proficiency means that one not only can speak the language, but can also use it correctly,” he said in reply to Senator Datuk Samsiah Samsudin today.
Mohd Puad said the government was also planning to recruit 13,933 English teachers for this purpose.
Earlier, when replying to the Senator Zaitun Mat’s original question on the number of expert English teachers placed in rural schools, Mohd Puad said that as of today, there were 9,293 excellent teachers of various grades and expertise nationwide.
“Of the total, 954 are English teachers; 622 of them are placed in secondary schools, and 332 are in primary schools, both in urban and rural areas,” he added. — Bernama
Erinaheights says
Aha, finally the REAL reason why the BN voted to reverse the teaching of Mathematics and Science to BM and vernacular languages.
Ada udang di sebalik batu. Konon, want to improve English proficiency? Fat hopes.
THAT experiment failed miserably a long time ago and one generation of Malaysians are feeling the results of the folly of BN education policy makers.
Ada provision RM5 billion? Masuk kocek siapa pulak?!
Waitlah for GE13. We see who has more political power.
Defenders of Malay language or people of ALL RACES with COMMON SENSE who need to think of the future of our children and our children’s children.
Kami punya anak kena cari makan dengan bersaing global. Not having silver and gold dropping from the sky [like for the] children of [the politically-connected].
Nicholas Aw says
Whenever a new policy is implemented, there is always a lot of money pumped in, in this case to the tune of RM5 billion. This ploy is to cover the “mistake” (according to some interested politically-aligned organisations) made with ETeMS. It doesn’t matter if 58% of the people want ETeMS to stay. The government has decided and despite arguments and hoo-hah, maths and science will be taught in BM and the mother tongue beginning 2012.
There is more to it then having a bigger allocation and increasing the number of contact hours for English. Let us not [miss] the wood for the trees. If the Education Ministry truly wants to raise the standard of English Language learning and teaching, it has to do more than just import teachers from Britain, Australia and New Zealand or engage retired English teachers. It has to revamp the entire system and take drastic action to ensure that only qualified English teachers teach this subject.
As it is, as much as the ministry and the universities would like to deny, we have “unqualified” English Language teachers. To be fair to the universities, we do have some very good English graduates but overall we know that our schools are riddled with half-baked English graduates.
I know of a particular case where this English teacher who holds a Masters in English does not know what a present perfect tense is. Then there is an English Language Inspector of Schools that does not even have a qualification in English. This latter case is like getting a lorry driver to pilot a plane. And let me assure you that these are not isolated cases.
Unless and until more concrete steps are taken, the standard of English in Malaysia will remain in the drain.