Test viability of learning three languages

I REFER to the report “Speaking well of the DLP” ( Sunday Star, Nov 12).

Congratulations to the Education Ministry on the success of the DLP pilot project for Years One, Two, Four and Five pupils, and Forms One and Two students.

Apparently, statistics have shown that between 18% and 95% of students in over 1,200 primary and secondary DLP schools have improved their grades in English school tests with the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English.

Moreover, three-quarters of these DLP students were at, or above, the target level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

More importantly, more time spent on teaching in English has not affected the learning of Bahasa Malaysia. With these positive results, the Education Ministry should share the benefits of DLP with other schools across the country.

Now, only about 40,000 students or 10% of schools nationwide offer DLP classes, which of course is considerably low.

I presume many schools would like to adopt DLP but are unable to do so because of their failure to meet the conditions imposed by the Education Ministry, which are: the school’s Bahasa Malaysia (BM) marks are not higher than Bahasa Inggeris (BI); unable to get majority of the parents’ consent; and not enough qualified teachers to teach Mathematics and Science in English.

Perhaps the Education Ministry should conduct more in-service upskilling courses not only for English teachers but also for BM teachers so that schools can produce students who are proficient in BM and English.

Once there are enough qualified BM and BI teachers to handle the teaching of Mathematics and Science, the parents surely would not hesitate to agree with the school authority’s wish to adopt DLP.

The prime objective is to get all the students on board regardless of whether they are from national or national-type schools.

Nevertheless, in view of the myriad challenges in this digital age, the Education Ministry should not hesitate to move on to the next level of language proficiency – TLP (Tri-Language Programme).

Similarly, with the experience acquired in implementing DLP, the education authorities can select pilot schools to test the viability of TLP in national schools in particular.

Admittedly, national-type schools have been producing students who are proficient in BM, BI and Bahasa Cina.

Tri-lingual students have more opportunities for jobs in multinational companies that deal with global customers.

Moreover, through the Internet, they themselves can source for knowledge using their language skills if they are enterprising enough.

Thus, the Education Ministry should provide not only DLP but also TLP to students to equip and empower them to tap the vast opportunities available in the globalised digital world. THOMAS KOK Ipoh