Life is not a textbook!

Lately I’ve seen quite a few letters in the newspapers on the standard of education in Malaysia with some readers suggesting that the Education Ministry bring back English-medium schools and some steadfastly holding on to their belief that BM-medium national schools are the way forward.

Mostly the arguments are centered on how disadvantaged our graduates are in the job market after spending more than 12 of their growing years in BM-medium schools as they are unable to converse adequately in the English language, thus making them non-employable especially in big multinational corporations. Nevermind that some of these graduates have national exam scores of 10As and above. The fact is that many, if not most, of them can hardly muster up enough courage to string a sentence in English, let alone hold a conversation with the interviewer. Their command of English is certainly cringe-worthy. However, I do not think that this problem is prevalent only in the BM-medium national schools, as a matter of fact, I think students from Chinese schools face the same problem.

English is not a language that can be learned by the textbook and I think this is where part of the problem lies. Our education system tries to cram in as many subjects in an average school day as possible, which is about 6 hours. As most of the subjects were either taught in only BM or Chinese, that effectively leaves about 30 to 45 minutes each day for English lessons if they’re lucky. On top of that, many of the teachers in the national schools are not well-versed in English either.

In part our educational culture is also to blame. It is no secret that our education system is one that encourages memorizing of texts. I spent 12 years in the national schools and I can attest that we were encouraged to memorize the textbooks. I was lucky in the sense that I had access to a wide range of encyclopedias at home and was encouraged to read. I’ve heard from many people that these days, their children are taught to memorize whole essay samples in school so that they can reproduce them in exams, word for word. I was horrified to say the least and I am even more horrified that some parents seem to think this is perfectly acceptable. Shouldn’t creative writing be encouraged instead? This is but one example of our system. We hear all the time that we should “think out of the box” and yet we encourage our children to “think within the box” by curtailing their creativity. Has anyone ever thought how difficult it must be to “think out of the box” when you spent almost your entire growing years on “thinking within the box”? Do we just expect our children to suddenly start being creative? Unfortunately, after years of going through the grind, it is not surprising that the children forget what creativity means.

What good is it to churn out straight-A students year after year when these students are lacking in so many areas? It is hard to find someone to have an intellectually-stimulating conversation with because many of them do not have the general knowledge required to even start a conversation with! Life is not a textbook. I fear for the children who will eventually discover this fact when they finally leave school.

Final Exams

It's exam time again. Although our daughter is only 7 years old, you wouldn't believe how difficult the syllabus is these days. It's so tough (at least I think it is) that we have been revising and revising to ensure that she is at least confident enough to sit for the exam. I'm not hoping she'll score As, don't get me wrong. It doesn't matter to me what she scores because after all, she is only 7.

I read in the papers yesterday that the Education Ministry is thinking of adding History into the syllabus for Primary schools. The one thing that came to my mind was, "What? Another subject?". The kids can barely cope with the subjects in Primary right now. They barely have time to breathe coz all the time they have is spent either in school or at home doing their endless homework. And then there is the "do-we-or-don't-we" decision to either change Maths and Science back to Bahasa Malaysia or keep it in English. It's so stressful being a kid these days (also for the parents!) and I wonder if this is the right approach in getting the kids to love going to school.

To teach or not to teach

Our Education Ministry is once again deciding whether to continue teaching Science and Mathematics in English. And once again, our children are the ones who’ll have to pay the price for their decisions.

My humble opinion is that they should continue teaching these subjects (and if possible the other subjects as well) in English. The reason is a no-brainer. English is the lingua franca so it makes sense to equip our children with the communication skills they will require to make it in the business world when the time comes.

I’ve always worked in an MNC (since my first job) and my job requires me to converse in English with our counterparts elsewhere in the world. I’ve seen job applications completely written in Bahasa Melayu and applicants who can barely understand a word of English, let alone write in English. Again, this is a no-brainer. Would the MNC hire someone who is unable to communicate in English? The answer is a resounding no for the reasons listed above.

I had an interesting conversation with an old Malay lady I met at my daughter’s school. She speaks excellent English and as she proudly told me, she has lived in many countries around the world. She is able to proudly hold her head up high wherever she is in the world because she is able to speak English, as well as, if not better, than the native speakers. The best thing is, she was a product of our National schools, when English was the main medium of instruction.

We’ve been given the excuse too many times that the reason Science and Maths should be taught in the national language is because many children from non-English speaking backgrounds are unable to grasp the subjects taught. Let me ask this … if a foreign worker from Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan etc is able to master the Chinese language in a matter of months, surely our children can do better? If the powers-that-be think that for some reason, our children are unable to absorb new languages, I would certainly take that as an insult. The fact is, learning is central to our progress as human beings. It’s whether or not we choose to learn. And I think it is no secret that many are choosing not to learn.

Is it any wonder that many of our graduates are unable to find a job? With globalization, the world is getting smaller and people are getting more competitive. However, it does seem to me that the powers-that-be and our graduates are still sitting comfortably in their shells, oblivious to the fact that if they do not make an attempt to buck-up, they will be left behind. When they do finally come to their senses, it will be too late. And when that happens, who will they blame for this?

If we want to compete with the rest of the world and hold our heads up high, proper education is the way to go. It is not about having the biggest roti canai or the longest stretch of satay in the Guinness Book of Records. We are only competitive when we are able to communicate with the rest of the world in a language they understand.