We have the best teachers (Indians) in our country, begs to Singapore for qualified English teachers!

Malaysiakini : Anwar's knee-jerk solution for teaching English in schools​ By Mariam Mokhtar. 

COMMENT | Blame the two Rs (race and religion) for the decline in English proficiency, in a slump which did not happen overnight, but had been steadily going downhill for many decades.

Soon after Merdeka, Umno nationalists used the two Rs to brainwash ignorant Malays. Malaysians who spoke English were labelled “unpatriotic”, and Malays were eager to learn Arabic because the language of the prophet could possibly “fast track” them to heaven.

To address the decline, previous governments brought in teachers from around the globe to teach English in our schools. Did the specially imported teachers from America, the United Kingdom, Australia, India and Oman, produce the desired results? Did a crony company benefit from this “import”?

Prime ministers treat the symptoms of the decline but are reluctant to treat both the symptoms and the cause. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is no different. When his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong (above) came on a state visit to Malaysia, Anwar discussed the possibility of Singaporean teachers coming to Malaysia to teach English and other subjects.

Anwar failed to provide the details of his proposal. Moreover, what would this knee-jerk reaction achieve? It is a short-term, expensive solution. National Union of the Teaching Profession president Aminuddin Awang disagreed with Anwar’s plan. He said Malaysia had enough local graduates from both public and private universities who could address this shortfall.

Former minister Rafidah Aziz suggested engaging retired English teachers and reviewing the teacher training syllabus to include English competency and the school syllabus to include English proficiency.

We made the same suggestion many years ago, but no one listened. We can’t blame the nationalists because a complacent public allowed extremist and self-serving leaders to dominate almost every area of our lives, including education.

At independence, the English spoken in our schools was relatively fluent. Many graduates became English teachers and continued the tradition of delivering fluent English. I know this because many of my school friends have become teachers. However, affirmative action policies destroyed their teaching careers in public schools.

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Commenting has been disabled for this story : We had excellent English teachers in the past Many of them were ethnic Indians and Chinese. But they were gradually pushed out of schools. Now we lack good English teachers.

The English teachers we have today are mostly Melayus from local Ketuanan universities They can barely speak English themselves. Garbage in, Garbage out.

Proud Infidel : What an utter disgrace for Malaysians. We have the best of the best teachers (Indians) in our country and this Madani without any shame goes begging to Singapore for qualified English teachers!

MS : To add on to an otherwise irrefutable piece by Mariam M, there was a certain President of PBMUM (Persatuan Bahasa Melayu University Malaya) who, in the dead of the night in 1970 (if my memory serves we well) tarred and blackened all the English Language signs on campus starting with the lecture theatres adjacent to the Arts Concourse. That same vandal is now asking for help from Singapore.

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