My Town: Swan City

My Longhouse

HOTTES ISSUE TODAY: PPSMI

PPSMI: Should not be abolished

Is so pity that some of us take is as a burden by using English totally in learning Mathematics and Science. As a matter of fact, publ

ic should look it from the positive side. First of all, I would like to brief all of you about PPSMI. PPSMI is the outcome of a policy decision made by the Government of Malaysia as the result from the Minister’s Council Meeting held on 19 July 2002. It stands for 'Pembelajaran dan Pengajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris'. The implementation of PPSMI was carried out in stages beginning with the 2003 schooling session. The pioneers were all Year 1 students for Primary Schools, Form 1 and Lower 6 students for Secondary Schools. The full implementation of PPSMI was in 2007 for Secondary Schools and 2008 for Primary Schools.

The rationale for the decision to change the medium of instruction from the Malay Language to English for the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics subjects was made based

concerning the nation’s human capital development towards achieving the standard of a developed country, as well as an early preparation to compete in the era of globalization.

It is widely known that the field of science and mathematics form the basis and have a crucial role in the progress and development of a country. Various innovations and discoveries in

these two fields happen rapidly and information access is mostly in the English language.

English language is also the language spoken internationally and mastery in this language would allow easy access to information in these fields.

The policy decision to implement PPSMI was made to ensure students’ mastery in science and mathematics in view of the fact that most of the sources are available in the English language. Indirectly, it is also hoped that the implementation of PPSMI would contribute to the enhancing of students’ command of the language.

I always feel weird when some people said that by teaching Science and Mathematics in English will give a hard time to the students and worse this great move will lead to the vanishing of Bahasa Melayu which I think purely ridiculous. When the first time it was introduced, yes we didn’t have a beautiful chart to brag about but after some times, it became better and better each year.

Some people even complaints about there are a lot of problem to those students in the rural. Are you suggesting that we have to move backward to the rural level and stuck there until those students manage to cope with the world? If the rural students want to be success, they don’t have any other choice than to study hard and practice it. If they are entitle to continue study and will be studying abroad, do you think they will still use Bahasa Melayu in other people’s country?

Most of the reference books are in English. Do you know how hard for the students to translate English-Malay and Malay-English? Most people think that PPSMI will make the gap

between rural and urban becomes big. Are they suggesting that we slow down the speed for the urban to give chance for the rural to cope? Pathetic.

In a nutshell, I am still fixed with my view that PPSMI should not be abolished for our own good.Thank you.

POEM ABOUT PPSMI BY A.SAMAD SAID

Lalu, aku sayu dan aku pilu;

lalu, aku ragu dan aku malu …

Buah ranum pada tangkai;

bahasa gugur dari hati,sekali janji, sekali nafi;

sekali pancang, sekali pincang,

iktibar apakah semua ini?

Lalu pemimpin angkuh berkata …

Aku apa peduli

Kalaupun Shakespear turun ke bumi!

Lalu Sasterawan Negara bersumpah lagi …

Jangan berikan undi,

pada mereka yang menghina bahasa sendiri.

Jangan diundi pemimpin yang …

bertelinga satu,berlidah dua.

(A. Samad Said - Sasterawan Negara)