EDUCATION: No Colonial Hangups as Malays Rush to Learn English

EDUCATION: No Colonial Hangups as Malays Rush to Learn English
By Baradan Kuppusamy

TAMPIN, Malaysia, Aug 23, 2005 (IPS) - It is three o'clock in the afternoon on a normal weekday in this small town, about 110 kms south of the national capital, and Hafsiah, 9, and her brother Badrul, 12, are tearing up the stairs of a three-storey shop house to enter a room full of students eager to learn English.

Many of the children are still in regular school uniforms and have not had time to change but they are ready for another session of learning in a scene that is commonplace these days in rural Malaysia that is dominated by the country's indigenous Malays.

So keen are Hafsiah and her brother, as also many of the other students, that they have not returned to their homes in nearby villages for lunch but stayed on in Tampin town with stomachs growling, so they do not miss their precious English language coaching session.

English, once shunned as the language of colonialism, is now regarded as the passport to success in the modern world and is rapidly replacing Islamic studies and the sciences.

''My parents say English is the key to the future and that we have to master it,'' Hafsiah told IPS after the session. ''But it (English) is so strange to the tongue''.

Apparently, the difficulties that Malays have in competing in a rapidly globalising world is being attributed by the older generation to their failure to master English and even to turning their backs on the language in 1970 in a wave of nationalism.

Malays form slightly more than 50 percent of Malaysia's 23 million people with the economically dominant ethnic Chinese forming 22 percent and concentrated in the urban centres where the English language has survived better. Indians who form another seven percent of the population are also largely urban.

The frenzy to catch up with English in rural Malaysia is more than just palpable and nowadays second only to the craze for English football and the popular 'Malaysian Idol' contest.

Signs of the frenzy are everywhere. Bookshops are stacked high with volumes of dry English grammar and these include familiar reprints from the1960s when English had better status than in the intervening years.

English tuition centres are mushrooming in shop houses, schools and homes and wherever space is available.

Newspapers are promoting English by giving out free copies to schools and businesses are donating millions of dollars to adopt entire schools and pick up the tab so that the students can have an English education.

''We should not be shy to say English is a Malaysian language,'' said Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein recently while launching a new scholarship programme that provides English language resources to 290 rural and semi-urban schools.

English may have been the language of the colonial masters, Hussein said, ''but it was also the language which our founding fathers acquired, took to London, and returned as masters of their own land''.

''Forty-eight years on à we should not be shy to say English is a Malaysian language,'' he said, giving the all-important official cue for the drive to once again excel in a language which seems to have thrived globally rather than declined in the post-colonial phase.

Earlier, when Malay nationalism was at a high and learning the Malay language considered sacrosanct, such a statement would have quickly ended the minister's political career.

''The standard of written and spoken English has deteriorated in the past 30 years,'' said Ramasamy Palanisamy, professor of political science at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia.

''After the 1969 race riots (between Malays and ethnic Chinese), Malaysia switched to the Malay stream for schools and university in 1971. From then on English as a language declined,'' Ramasamy said.

English continued to be taught as a second language in rural Malaysia but its quality declined because of official hostility, rise of Islam and poor teaching resources.

That climate has now reversed dramatically and the study of English is nowadays being actively promoted by officialdom and receiving a matching response as well.

It all started in 2002 when some Japanese investors told former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that many Malaysian graduates were so poor in English that they were simply unemployable.

There were serious communication problems. While Japanese factory managers had learned English, Malaysian graduates had not.

''You don't expect us to learn Malay language to communicate with our workers,'' one Japanese manager famously asked of government officials. ''Even in China, the Chinese are rushing to learn English''.

But that is a situation familiar across Asia where former British colonies like India are competitively attracting international investors because of significant numbers of English-knowing professionals and ready to put up with shortcomings in terms of infrastructure and conducive business environment. In Malaysia, about 20,000 graduates are estimated to be unemployed because of poor communication skills and most of them are from rural backgrounds. The government is even spending millions of dollars to retrain them in various industrial skills.

Many graduates had begun to hide their degree certificates and take lower- paying jobs for which they are considered 'overqualified', like jobs at the fire department, rather than remain unemployed.

Mahathir realised that if the trend continued, Malaysia's position as a vibrant, trading economy would be badly affected. So as a technocrat and a believer in social engineering, with a pro-Malay approach, he decided on a fast track scheme to bring English to rural students.

And without careful preparation and ignoring stiff, all- round opposition, he announced that from 2003 onwards all schools must teach key subject like science and mathematics in English.

Opposition lawmakers, education experts and Chinese and Tamil language teachers warned that student performance would drop dramatically if a switch is made in such a sudden manner and without planning.

They argued that teachers, who had been teaching science and mathematics in Malay, Mandarin and Tamil languages for over 30 years, cannot overnight teach in English.

Mahathir was both impatient and adamant. He said modern technology, use of Internet and special teaching software would be employed to make the overnight switch work.

''English has to be learned as a languageàit can't be acquired by learning science and mathematics in English,'' said a school headmaster who had opposed the scheme and asked not to be named.

''Mahathir's scheme, now into its second year, is a mess,'' he told IPS.

As the experts had predicted, the performance of rural Malay students had dropped when they were forced to switch to English as the medium of instruction in science and mathematics.

More Malays were not making the grade to enter colleges, polytechnics and universities largely because of the sudden switch.

''It is an alien language and not easily learnt by rural Malay studentsà you cannot force people to learn,'' said the headmaster. ''It has got to be a gradual process''.

The current campaign to learn English seeks to somewhat repair the damage caused by the earlier scheme, by helping students learn the language in gradual stages.

The semi-official New Straits Times is leading the campaign under the telling slogan, 'Build Tomorrow's Malaysia, Learn English, Adopt a Student'.

A downside of the infatuation is the arrival of foreigners and budget tourists and others pretending to be English language teaching experts.

''Teach English on the colourful and exotic island of Borneo in Malaysia,'' reads one Internet advertisement, inviting foreigners to head to Malaysia to teach English.

It goes on to say: ''The flamboyance of Malaysia is breathtaking. This is a country where the sun shines, the sea is crystal clear and there are endless coconut, banana and palm trees! No qualifications required''.

''Before you go - you can enroll in a one-day intensive open teacher, training day (optional) to help you teach if you have no previous experience,'' the advertisement says.

There seems little concern for nuances such as the all too- evident differences in American English and the British variety, with which this former crown colony is more familiar with - though as a rapidly- receding memory.

For now it is a free for all and rural Malays are too busy learning 'English as she is spoke' to worry about who is doing the teaching. (ENDS/IPS/AP/IP/ED/CR/IN/DV/BK/RDR/05)

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