Contrary to the statistics shown in www.thestar.com.my that the performance of students is affected by the taught of the subject in English, I believe otherwise. This is due to the fact that always in in statistics, to prove a hyptohesis, it needs to be measured significantly at 95% confidence level. By showing that sort of statistics alone is not enough to support the fact that the student performance is affected by the teaching of Mathematic in English.
If I am an analyst or the government, I wont show that sort of stats. It make people in the corporate and consultancy world laugh because of the lack of significance in the stats. But, I do believe the reversal is mainly due to the pressure and the political constraint which the government of the day is facing. Of course, the reversal reduce the pressure in such a way that the opposition has one issue less to speak about. But the thing is that, it seems we lack the fighting power, like what the Japanese always says "Gambatte Kudasai !". "Please try your best".
I dont know how much pressure and "usaha kuat" our teachers can take nowadays but it seems despite the salary adjustment upwards, the motivation is still lacking. Are we going to resort to "rule by demonstration" is something that I dont know in the future. But the lack of spirit to move things above the current level is quite alarming. There is a need to think very much far ahead. And Hey , usaha kuat untuk memperbaiki diri sendiri dari segala segi adalah satu-satunya "dengki" dan "iri hati" yang dibenarkan di dalam Islam. Iri hati sekiranya orang lain dapat elaun atau orang lain dapat lap-top dan kita benci pada orang tersebut tidak dibenarkan di dalam Islam. Of course, if I talk this to my sub-ordinate many years ago, the sub-ordinate said that dengki dah wujud berzaman dulu. And my answer in my heart, "Patutlah dari zaman dulu Melayu lambat maju sehingga orang puteh datang baru boleh maju... agaknya kalau Melayu dengar orang kata bodoh dia marah... tapi bila orang puteh kata "stupid" dia senyum.
Dengki pada orang lain dapat elaun kerana orang itu lebih berkerja kuat atau lebih berilmu pengetahuan seawajar diatasi dengan diri sendiri berusaha lebih kuat. Tapi bila dengki dengan menghalang orang lain untuk maju ke hadapan atau menutup peluang orang lain yang mempunyai kebolehan dan ilmu pengetahuan untuk maju ke hadapan adalah sesuatu yang tidak wajar.
I think there is a need to protect my children. Frankly, I taught my daughter to count and add in Malay and English since she was 2 and half years old. At 5 years old, she can do it fluently. She talks in mat saleh slang of English, mind you. And she talks in Malay, it is "bahasa baku". In her kindergarten class, she was the top student for Mathematics but she lost to two other students in English. The difference in marks was just 1 and 2 points.
The fact that she scored top mark in Mathematics does not mean that she learnt it in English. Similarly. I would say that the reason why students does not score in Mathematics when being taught in English as being reported does not mean that the students fail due to the subject being taught in English.
There are only two factors that affect the performance of students - (a) The motivation of the student himself and (b) the teacher's way of teaching. I have experienced this, I know.
Let me share a bit about my experience. When I started my form four, I learnt additional mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia, the first there months were horrible, I failed every monthly test, simply to say. I love to learn but the way the teacher taught was disastrously demotivating. Consequently, my friend and I enrolled ourself to a tution, conducted by Mr. Balbir Singh, a very good sikh and teacher. Well, enrolled ourself here means that we find the tuition by our own and explain to our parents later to seek for some fund. So, here there is what I call the student's motivation.
Mr. Balbir Singh was an excellent teacher. He always has a migrain because his classes are always full with students who wanted to learn and he always accept new students. One of the student explained to him that he has difficulties to pay the tuition fees because his parent is not well-off. He accepted the student, free of charge.
He taught in Malay and English, but the writing on the board contain only mathematics symbols and logics.
Within a few weeks, my additional mathematics marks improved from fail to A. Does that mean because I learnt Mathematics in BM previously made me fail while when I learnt from Mr. Balbir Singh, made me a scorer ? :)
Things move, I was accepted in SMS Muar. Frankly, I missed Mr. Balbir Singh but I carried his methodology with me until even today but a fact is that I never score an A again in additional mathematics after I moved there. The things is that, it is how the teacher taught and how the student can pick up the logics is the most important aspect.
During A-Level, I learnt Further Mathematics, General Mathematics and Physics in English. I got all "As". Does that mean I got all "A" because I learnt them in English ? :)
Similar case happened to my sister. She once told me of her problem in additional mathematics. I asked her to show me her problem and how she try to solve the mathematical question. She showed it step by step. Finally, I ask her, does your teacher taught you a different way for the solution of the problem ? She said no. Immediately, I taught my sister the methodology of Mr. Balbir Singh. She said, it cant be this easy. I told her, this is the easiet way to solve that mathematical problem. Ahh...after that she became the second teacher to the students in her boarding school. I am glad that she was very motivated in a way that she scored A1 for her additional Mathematics.
So, again it is back to the students and the methods that the teacher taught.
The importance in English increases once a student reach the matricultion level. If the foundation is low, then an extensive English class is needed. But if the students have high proficiency in English and he take up courses which are related to sciences, then the chances is high that he can be very proficient in his subjects.
The burden of the university is not only to produce excellent students but to increase it's ranking. But excellent students can contribute to the ranking of the university by publishing papers in international journals. This cant be done with Bahasa Malaysia. It has to be done in English. More so, the literature of the state of the art technologies and discoveries are all written in English. Since publishing a paper in a journal requires the presentation of knowlegde above the state of the art of the technology, English is not an alternative. Rather, it is a must.
This can be achieved by two method a) by having early proficiency in English or b) by having lots of literatures translated to Bahasa Malaysia as soon as possible.
Of course I am concerned about the poor marks of the rural students showed by the statistics in the report. I dont know what is their actual problem. If I can help, I will, but it is too distant a help to be given. Furthermore, I am still gambatte imasu in my study and the reversal means that I will have to spent more time and effort with my children since the opportunity is some how reduced.
