On Math and Science in English

Close your eyes. Imagine yourself a few years back. If you’re thinking about your kindy days you’ve gone a bit too far. If you’re in your green pants or your light blue pinafore, go back a little further. Actually just go back to Primary 4. Some may remember the blatant meanness of their teachers and their wanton cruelty towards their students. Other may have fond memories of playing Digimon and the inevitable washing of toilets that followed. Notwithstanding, during this transitional period, we were exposed to new things in life as well as in our academic curriculum. We were now upper primary school students! Most significant however, was the introduction of science and perhaps kajian tempatan, which I remember to be the love child of geography and history. Quite boring if I remember correctly. The name Parameswara keeps popping up in my head for some strange reason. But anyway if you are around my age, give or take a few years (I'am 22 btw) you would remember studying both subjects in Bahasa Malaysia. I didn’t have any problems then, and I don’t have any problems now.

But that is because I am privileged enough to be sufficiently well versed in English and despite being in the science stream during my secondary school years, I went into commerce during my college years. Why did I go into commerce? Partly because I fared badly in biology. And physics. And chemistry. And that I have absolutely no aptitude for math nor science for that matter. Nevertheless, those who stayed true to science and went on to obtain a degree in engineering, medicine or something in the field of math or science will find that they have at some point in time had to relearn a thing or two. This is mostly because most universities teach in English. Unless of course you went to Germany to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering with hopes of being the next Ferdinand Porsche in which case your failure to immerse yourself in German is largely your own fault. So when the government announced that math and science would once again be taught in English, the notion was well received by the public. Sort of. Anyway the plan took off and before long math and science was introduced or rather reintroduced to our public schools. Now however we are reverting back to having math and science lessons in BM!

The reason? Some students cannot keep up with the aforementioned subjects being taught in English. To me the idea of reverting back to teaching Math and Science in BM is like the mother who refuses to take her newborn for vaccinations because the queue in the clinic was too long. She refuses to suffer the temporary pain of waiting in line, so in the long run her baby would almost certainly die of diseases which are largely kept at bay due to the offerings of modern medicine. To keep teaching Math and Science in English now may seem difficult. But trust me when I say this. It’s nothing short of some short-term pain for long-term gain.

Why do I say so? Well its simple. For Malaysia to compete on a global scale, it is just absolutely essential that the youth of the nation be able to read and write in English well. Lets look at the facts. What is the lingua franca of the international business? English. How about Science? Technology? Aviation? Care to fashion a guess? It has even replaced French as the language of diplomacy after the Second World War. So there is no denying then, that English is extremely important. Nik Aziz would probably hunt me down with his bomohs and parangs for saying this but I would say that, on higher level, English is a lot more important than Bahasa Malaysia. While I acknowledge the need for Malaysia to maintain its national identity by keeping the national language alive and active, to maintain a good level of English among the Rakyat is crucial. It comes down to this really, do you want to wait in line and have your daughter vaccinated or do you want her to die of smallpox? I’d wait in line.