Impact study on DLP to be known in January 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry is conducting a more comprehensive impact study on the 'Dual Language Programme' (DLP) to determine its effectiveness and the outcome is expected to be known in January next year.

Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said the study was conducted following the twophase monitoring of the students' achievement carried out by the ministry in 2016 and 2017.

“The first phase involves comparison between students' achievement in the English language examination at the end of 2016 and their achievement for the same subject in the examination held in the middle of 2017.

"As a result, 36.28 percent of primary school students showed improvement in English while for secondary schools, 46.44 percent of students showed improvement," he said in a question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday to a question from Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad (BNParit Sulong) on the impact of DLP in mastering of the English language among students.

Teo said the second phase monitoring involved comparisons between students' achievement in English for the mid-2017 exam and the final examination of 2017, which found that 55.82 percent of primary school students and 57.23 percent of high school students showed improvement.

The ministry, she said, was confident that DLP was an option that helped students master English based on the findings of an early study which showed improved results in the final year examination for English, Malay, Mathematical and Science subjects of those who followed DLP.

However, she said, it was up to the school and parents to choose the program based on the students' ability and their achievement.

To date, 22,960 primary and secondary students are involved in the program. - Bernama