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Hishammuddin seeks feedback on Science and Maths policy

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ALL education stakeholders have been invited to give their views on whether the policy to teach Science and Mathematics in English should continue, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said.

He said the views were being sought before a final decision is made after this year’s UPSR results are announced.

“I want to invite everyone – teachers, local universities and parent-teacher associations – to make their views known formally so that once a decision is made, it will be made with a clear conscience.”

Hishammuddin said the new policy would complete one cycle after the UPSR examinations this year, and this would give the ministry enough data to gauge its effectiveness.

Pupils who sit for the UPSR in September were the pioneer batch, which started studying both subjects in English from Year One in 2003.

The policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English was implemented in phases, starting off with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003.

Hishammuddin also stressed that whatever decision reached on the policy would not affect the ministry’s resolve to ensure that schoolchildren had a strong command of English, adding that the ministry had conducted six studies on the effectiveness of the policy.

Detox kits

“A lot of the views on the policy revolve around the fear of it affecting Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongues like Mandarin or Tamil.

“Also, many parents think that by re-looking this, it may dilute the importance of English.

“I would like to say this is not true and that the ministry is doubling its efforts to improve the teaching of English, especially at the primary level,” he explained.

He said some proposals included shortening the duration of other subjects so that more time could be given to English, increasing reading material and hiring teachers from outside if there was a shortage.

Earlier in the Dewan Rakyat, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Razali Ismail said the Government spent RM2.21bil on information and communication technology equipment in 2003 to implement the policy of teaching Mathematics and Science in English.

He said another RM2.4mil was spent on software, RM317mil to train teachers and RM638mil as subject incentives.