Abolishment of PPSMI in Malaysia

PPSMI is the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English language. It was originally

introduced by former Malaysia fourth Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad whom

amended the Malaysian Constitution to succeed this PPSMI. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

introduced this PPSMI because he is aware of the importance of English in the future either in

economy or technology and he also believe the mastery of English will bring Malaysia to a

global level. The PPSMI was implemented part by part until it was fully implemented in all

school in Malaysia by year 2008. Before it was implemented the teacher teach Science and

Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia. Basically the teacher taught Math and Science in mother

tongue. I still remember in 2007 when suddenly we have to learn Science and Mathematics in

English. It was a very difficult moment because we are not custom to English but we succeed

eventually.

The sudden changes make the students in kind of a shock and not just students even

the teacher had to do a lot of changes and I still remember my teacher had to attend a course

on how to use English in their lesson. As a student I admit it was a bit difficult learning Science

and Mathematics in English because we learnt them in our mother tongue before but we learnt it

slowly and it became normal for the students. We continue learning those subject in English in

secondary school but suddenly we heard the news that PPSMI will be abolished and it will be

reverted back to Bahasa Malaysia. This policy was announced by Minister of Education Tan Sri

Muhyiddin Yassin in 2009. The Minister confirmed that the government will abolish PPSMI and

use Bahasa Malaysia as the main language in the lesson by 2012. In my mind that time I’m

questioning myself why the government abolish the PPSMI? Are we just an experiment to see

whether if PPSMI effective in our education system? This announcement received a lot of critics

and there were many groups and NGOs want PPSMI to be retained in the school.

On the other hands there were also groups that support this abolishment. They believe

that learning English will bring no effect to our economics and technology. They even tried to

prove it by using Japan as an example. Japan is one of a well develop country which did not

use much English in their lesson but they are very advanced in technology. In my opinion we

cannot compare Malaysian with Japanese people because our mindset is too different compare

to theirs. Japanese are very innovative and they live with a strict code. Just take a look at their

punctuality in works and even their public transportation is very punctual compare to us

Malaysian we are totally different. And some groups also said the use of English will cause the

lack of nationalism and patriotism in our people. They believe if we use foreign language like

English too much in our daily live our nationalism and patriotism spirit will wear off.

The NGOs and other groups continue their rallies to retained PPSMI. Even the

opposition party agreed with PPSMI and requested it to be retained in national school. They

created survey to know how many students agreed with PPSMI. They received a positive

feedback where over 98% of the students prefer using English in Science and Mathematics and

even in Computing examination. Personally I also agree if we learn everything in English.

Nowadays English is a global language which is used as a medium to communicate with each

other. It is very crucial to improve the fluency in English to be on par with other country in both

economy and technology. The promoter of PPSMI Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in his speech

defend and support the groups advocating PPSMI. When he was asked about the nationalism

issues he emphasized that everything about PPSMI is not a question of lack of nationalism but it

is about taking Malaysia to the next level. Take a look at Singaporean as an example. Bahasa

Malaysia in fact their national language same as Malaysia but their citizens’ fluency in English

cannot be denied. As a student I admit my level of English is far left behind compare to them.

Singaporean speaks English in their daily lives and their country is well-known all over the world

while we Malaysian can speak English but with incorrect grammar and our fluency level is not

very high.\

In the end PPSMI is fully abolished and the government accept another option which is

using both English and Bahasa Malaysia in school. I don’t think it a good step because surely

most of the teacher and the student will use Bahasa Malaysia during their lesson because it is

much easier to communicate in native language. The government should realize the importance

of English for the students. How can they increase the standard of MUET when they do not

encourage students to speak in English? Even a language student like me is not fluent in

English and prefer using Bahasa Malaysia in my daily conversation. Why? Because sometime I

am shy to speak with my friend using English language as they will think I am showing off. That

is the problem with Malaysian today. When people try to speak English we said they show off

when they cannot speak fluently we label them as stupid. That particular mindset should be

changed. Parents should encourage their child to use English when communicating with them.

Maybe the government should take initiative by creating a new policy which ought the students

to use full English at school. They might not see the advantage of speaking English now but in

the future when they have to do business with foreigners or when they interview for a job they

will know that speaking English is very important and should not be taken lightly.