Getting ready to ride the wave
EVERY progressive nation knows that the way to economic success and global prowess starts with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.
The perpetual discussion to increase the number of STEM students needs more than incentives offered to make it successful. Inevitably, a transformation of the Science and Mathematics curriculum is essential to revive interest in STEM.
The improved teaching pedagogy must also be flexible and be able to evolve with the times. It needs to be more proactive to the fast changing world of science.
Improvements for transformation must address the current method of learning science and teaching by rote, as this is no longer effective in this day and age. Science must be taught in a more enriching and interesting manner to keep the curiosity going.
As a member of the Science Education committee of Akademi Sains Malaysia (ASM), we had the privilege of participating in one of ASM’s lecture series in April this year.
The topic was “The Development and Progress of Inquiry Based Science (IBSE)”, also known as La main à la pâte, and was presented by one of its founders, Professor Yves Quéré, a French scientist.
This method encourages students to ask questions, experiment, make mistakes, and use their own resources to discover how and why things work.
Countries like Serbia have opted to renew their STEM curriculum with La main à la pâte in stages in 2001 after their bad performance in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test.
The latest Science PISA 2010 result, although lower than the average Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, saw Serbia placed at 46th position, which is slightly higher than Malaysia at 53rd of 74 countries. The OECD average ranks at position 28.
Dennis Bartels, executive director of San Francisco’s Exploratorium and an advocate of inquiry-based and participatory learning and who is also experienced in the United States’ Science education policy, opines that “the spirit of critical thinking and independent reasoning that comes from personal inquiry results in stronger, more imaginative industries, which leads to a healthier economy”.
He adds that “a role of education in this society is to equip us not just to help us find a job today but a career and an approach towards learning for tomorrow. People must equip themselves with the skills, to anticipate and react to change, and to keep pace with however our economy changes.”
The US, with a population of 311 million people, needs 280,000 Science and Mathematics teachers by 2015 to ensure its global competitiveness. Malaysia, with a population of 27 million, has 400,000 teachers. On the basis of per capita population of Science teachers’ equivalent to the US, we need 21,600 Science and Mathematics teachers or only 5% of the total teacher population for our country.
If we are to transform the way we do Science, we must begin to transform the STEM teaching pedagogy, the continuous teacher training programmes, and also the teachers.
The current batch of Science and Mathematics teachers have the advantage in their ability to function in scientific English, making them more receptive and adaptable to learning at the same pace with the rest of the world.
The seven years we have left to achieve Vision 2020 is a blink in time. We don’t just need a transformation but a revolution to jolt STEM education to get it up to the OECD average. This is why we need to do it in English. There are more enriching experiences and up-to-date information available and we need not spend unnecessarily.
We should be investing in the development of STEM in research, teaching pedagogy, resources and upgrading of our schools’ and institutions’ STEM learning facilities to give the encompassing STEM education the accolade that it deserves.
Many people argue that if other countries can do it in their own languages, why is it not possible for us?
The answer is simply because all of those countries – Germany, Japan, Korea, China – are way ahead of us, and their investments and yields in their science and technology are among the highest in the world. Their advantage is that their population is homogenous – made up of mostly monolinguals, and far
more advanced than us in terms of their technological know-how.
Malaysia, on the other hand, is a multi-cultural society with many languages and dialects being spoken in the country. If we want to achieve the developed nation status for real, let’s cut to the chase, bite the bullet, gear up, get ready to ride the wave and do the necessary transformation.
English is the way forward for us as far as science and technology is concerned and it is the most efficient way to keep up with the rest of the world.
Developing the STEM teachers of tomorrow must begin now or else, by 2025, we will still be stuck and handicapped by our own malaise to move the goalpost.
If we apply Pareto’s 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of the input, to illustrate how many able Science and Mathematics teachers there are, then 80% of the proficient teachers comes from 20% or 4,320 of the total Science and Mathematics teachers.
If we harness the strength of 20% of these teachers and retrain those in IBSE, that should be able to give us a positive net effect of improving our STEM education to start off with.
We have always believed that doing Science and Mathematics in English should remain as an option indefinitely in national schools or selected national schools.
We empathise with some students who need more coaching in English to catch up with the rest. No effort should be spared for them to do so.
As far as the urban rural gap is concerned, in time the rural schools will get better, especially with efforts such as Teach for Malaysia to aid in scaling up equality for rural schools.
The graph above shows the SPM performance for rural vs urban schools. If we do not do something drastic, the rural students would be continuously left behind.
The thing we need to address right now is the gap between achievements in the Malaysian national schools, Malaysian private/international schools and the rest of the world. In short, we need to raise the bar, not keep the bar low.
Perhaps 20% of the national schools should be designated as Science and Mathematics in English schools (STEM schools).
If it is not palatable to offer it for free in national schools, surely there will be 20% of parents who would be willing to pay a token amount monthly for the schools which combine Science and Mathematics in English via IBSE. A small payment per month per child should not be too painful in comparison to the advantages obtained.
The benefits have a multiplying effect; we must ensure that the development of future STEM teachers and professionals in STEM must have the necessary skills to survive in this fast evolving world.
Currently, 20% of the population owns 80% of the country’s wealth. Most of them would not be where they are if not for their education in English.
It is not about which political party or spokesperson say what about Science and Mathematics in English; it is about doing the right thing – to give every opportunity, guidance and exposure without any boundaries.
If we are serious in tackling STEM education and to ensure we remain economically competitive in the future, the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (MEB) needs to address this. Surely the path towards developing the wealth of this nation warrants a chapter in the MEB.
But is it excluded mainly to avoid discussing the hot topic of Science and Mathematics in English? That is just priceless!