PPSMI: What's The Big Deal?

Hello folks. here i am ranting and grumbling about the current affairs and state-of-education here in Malaysia. Malaysia, as we all know is a multiracial and plural country. In Malaysia, one can find Malays, Indians and Chinese living together in peace and harmony.

The Malays and other races (viz. Indian and Chinese, just to name a few) attended the government school or so popularly known as "national" schools.

However, of late, certain issues has spark and ignited heated argument about the use of medium of instruction for teaching mathematics and science in English. certain quarters of people disagree with our present government's move of teaching mathematics and science in english.

i, for some reason could not fathom on the current situation. to me: hey, what's a big deal of learning maths and science in english? isn't that suppose to be good? english, as we all know, is a universal language, spoken all over the place in the world. english has become the second major (at least in Malaysia) language used in malaysia. so, why are we trying to stop the children from learning maths and science in english? after all, only these two subjects are taught in english. other subjects such as bahasa malaysia, kemahiran hidup, pengajian islam etc are all taught in malay.

does learning maths and science in english makes malay to be less malay? or even to the extreme point of saying "un-malay"? does learning maths and english derogate one's social status and bring heart attack to the whole nation? no, i don't think so. no one has ever gone blind, or deaf simply by learning maths and science in english, that's for sure.

next is the issue of "nationalism". O people of Malaysia: let thy know that learning maths and science in english won't change one's origin: if we are malay since the day we were born, then we will remain malay forever. the same goes to other races. however, it is very pathetic to hear argument that learning maths and science in english would make one to be less malaysian. says who?

learning maths and science in english is after all, a good move!

Anyway, the arguments, as put forth by certain quarters, says that "bahasa melayu perlu di daulatkan", which in English means, "the malay language should be popularized and worshipped". you know, in secondary schools in Malaysia, the students have to undertake more that seven subjects per year. Let's have a look at the subjects: Bahasa Melayu, English, Sejarah, Science, Pendidikan Islam/Moral, Mathematics, Geografi, and so on. Now, the government is only asking the two principal subjects, namely Mathematics and science to be taught in english, while the rest is kept in original language, that is malay. what the hell is so hard about that? why make such issue a fuss and a ruckus? i don't understand.

enlighten me!