What’s wrong with ‘most ridiculous of policies’
It is true that the Ministry of Education (MoE) has implemented several programmes such as ‘Memartabatkan Bahasa Malaysia dan Memperkukuh Bahasa Inggeris (MBMMBI), Dual Language Programme (DLP) and Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) to improve the standard of English among students.
KUCHING: There is nothing wrong with the state government asking elected representatives to come up with creative and interesting programmes to improve the proficiency in English among school students.
Political secretary to the chief minister Tan Kai said such a move was not the same as asking elected representatives to teach English in schools.
“It is true that the Ministry of Education ( MoE) has implemented several programmes such as ‘ Memartabatkan Bahasa Malaysia dan Memperkukuh Bahasa Inggeris ( MBMMBI), Dual Language Programme ( DLP) and Highly Immersive Programme ( HIP) to improve the standard of English among students.
“As Bandar Kuching MP, Chong Chieng Jen is aware of these programmes and should get an update from school teachers, or find out the results of the programme implementation and give feedback to the government.
“I do not think he ( Chong) should keep the information and use it for publicity when the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research introduces a new policy,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
He was responding to recent comments from Chong, who had described the ministry’s move in requesting all 82 elected representatives to adopt a school to improve English proficiency as “the most ridiculous of policies”.
Tan opined that Chong should raise his doubts in Parliament instead of going to the press.
“Do not act the same with the issue of tourism tax; that you ( Chong) were MIA ( missing in action) during the debate in Parliament and only aired your comments in the papers,” he said.
Tan said he had spoken to a few school teachers who told him that various schools had different initiatives.
According to him, some schools organised English storytelling or poem recital contests as their initiatives to improve the proficiency in the language among students.
He said some schools even had ‘ English corridor’ and used English as the medium to address the weekly assembly.
“On top of that, the government has also sent teachers to Swinburne University for the Holiday English Language Enhancement Programme to strengthen the English language teachers,” he added.
Tan felt that these were the type of information that Chong ought to gather and provide as input to Parliament to seek further improvement, and hoped the opposition would not object to the state government’s policy of asking elected representatives to play a role in improving the level of proficiency in English among students.
Tan Kai, political secretary to the chief minister