| |
Clash over English in Malaysia's
schools
By Anil Netto
PENANG,
Malaysia - Despite achieving a "consensus", Malaysia's
ruling coalition still appears divided on plans to find
a compromise position on how to best to improve the
standard of English in schools while preserving
mother-tongue education.
The issue illustrates
how difficult it can be to strike a balance between the
two, especially in situations where language and
education can often be so heavily politicized in this
multicultural Southeast Asian nation.
In May,
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, apparently worried that
Malaysians were losing their competitive advantage in
the globalization stakes, said that the government would
reintroduce English-medium schools if the people wanted
them, which prompted a flurry of debate in the media.
The supreme council of Mahathir's United Malays National
Organization (UNMO) objected, arguing that
English-medium schools would be contrary to the National
Education Policy, which has promoted the Malay language.
Instead UMNO backed a proposal for only science and
mathematics to be taught in English in schools. The
issue has since been heavily politicized, with Mahathir
having staked his personal prestige on the compromise
proposal.
The government expects to introduce
teaching the two subjects in English in stages next year
as part of a national initiative, but before that
happens the government must find a face-saving solution
for its leader and for the dominant ethnic parties that
make up Mahathir's administration.
Last Tuesday,
Mahathir said the ethnic-Chinese minority parties in the
government coalition had been given a week to come up
with a modified proposal on how to integrate the
teaching of science and mathematics in English at
Chinese-medium primary schools. "They [Chinese-medium
schools] are not exempted. We will find a way for the
schools to implement the new policy. The implementation
may be different, but it will be carried out in the same
spirit," said Mahathir.
Reluctant to concede
much, the Chinese-based parties have floated the idea of
conducting classes for the two subjects in English after
school hours, while continuing to teach science and
mathematics in Chinese during normal hours. But Abdul
Rafie Mahat, the education ministry director general,
rejected the idea saying the language switch must be
incorporated into the formal learning hours for all
schools.
Chinese-medium primary schools are
regarded by many in the Chinese community, as an
important safeguard of their cultural heritage. Out of
Malaysia's 24 million population, over half are ethnic
Malays while ethnic Chinese make up a quarter.
The fate of Malaysia's ethnic-based ruling
parties is closely tied to the preservation of the
partially government-aided Chinese and Tamil-medium
primary schools, which exist alongside the nation's
fully funded Malay-medium schools.
It is a
climb-down of sorts for four of the five Chinese-based
parties in the ruling coalition with reservations about
the plan. Both the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)
and Gerakan, the two largest of these parties, had
publicly expressed their opposition, the MCA's rebuff
coming only last week. Such open dissent among ruling
coalition parties towards an official proposal is rare
in Malaysia; grievances within the ranks are usually
expressed behind closed doors while the public is
offered a show of ruling coalition unity. The sole
ethnic Indian party, the Malaysian Indian Congress,
supported the proposal but, in what looked like a quid
pro quo deal, asked for full government aid for
Tamil-language schools, many of which have been
neglected over the years.
The language issue has
never been far from the surface over the decades. From
the late 1960s, English-medium schools were
progressively converted to the Malay-medium by the
authorities, fired up by nationalistic zeal.
"Basically the Chinese political parties are
under pressure but they want to give the Chinese
community the impression that the Barisan formula -
going through negotiations - is functioning," said Ng
Tien Eng, who has researched the history of
Chinese-medium education in the country. "But the
Chinese parties will have to give up something to keep
the so-called consensus afloat."
The ethnic
Chinese-based political parties in the ruling coalition,
opposition parties and critics of the proposal have
resisted Mahathir's language switch proposal for a
variety of reasons. Some felt that ethnic Chinese
students would be handicapped if they had to use English
instead of Chinese to learn mathematics and science.
"We have presented numerous studies and evidence
to show that the best way to master maths and science at
a tender age is through the mother tongue," said Ronnie
Liu, the national publicity secretary of the opposition
Democratic Action Party. Others felt the proposal could
dilute the role of Chinese-medium schools as the
protectors of Chinese language and heritage. Apart from
the partially aided Chinese primary schools, there are
some 60 independent Chinese-medium secondary schools
dotted across the country.
For their part,
education experts worry about the lack of trained
English-language teachers and teaching resources in
rural areas, especially in the Malay-medium national
schools. There has also been dissent from Malay-language
proponents who feel that the Malay language must be
given prominence in all areas of national life. But the
government is sticking to its guns despite such
misgivings. It argues that it is important to teach the
two subjects in English as most of the latest technical
and scientific literature is in that language.
Mahathir and UMNO, however, cannot afford to
antagonize the Chinese-based ruling coalition parties.
In the 1999 general election, the ruling coalition -
faced with an erosion in support from its traditional
ethnic Malay supporters - depended heavily on
ethnic-Chinese support to keep its commanding two-thirds
parliamentary majority intact.
Observers will be
watching the issue closely to see what kind of
modifications the Chinese-based parties will come up
with in the coming week.
It is not only the
extent of mother tongue education in Chinese-medium
schools that is at stake, but also the tight cohesion in
ruling coalition ranks could loosen if the modified
proposals prove unsatisfactory to coalition partners.
(Inter Press Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
