MASTER ENGLISH
Bahasa Malaysia which is a “must pass” subject.
Given this, English remains an optional subject that the students can do without, forgetting the fact by mastering the language, they can enhance their employability in Malaysia and elsewhere.
Countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the four eastern economic dragons in the Far East, have woken up to the fact that the mastery of the English language is crucial for businessmen and leaders to go global.
We have not responded similarly. Our emphasis on English has not been firm enough for the language to be lodged permanently in the education system at the national level.
We need to restore English to the glory days of the 1960s and 1970s when the medium of instruction was English. We, for some reason, made a decision to de-emphasise the teaching of English and we are paying the price for it.
We should have capitalised on that strong and distinct advantage when schools, universities, government offices and the masses, in general, were able to speak and write in English. That was the legacy the British left us with in the then Malaya.
Former colonies of the British Empire such as India, Singapore, the Caribbean and Pacific islands and African nations, among others, have continued to give great importance to English, apart from mastering their own language. We should do the same, again.
I hope my concern will add in a small way to what a number of royalties, scholars and academicians, employers, non-governmental organisations such as Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia, parents, and many others have voiced in meetings, forums and conferences.