Of Teachers, Education and Language...

When a teacher expects a good first day in school, things went the other way around. Parents have bombarded them with a lot of things, particularly the 'extra payments'. And TV3, expected to be the middleman of the issue, tries to solve the problem by asking around and coming up with their own consensus. As if they were the teachers. The simple answer to all the questions asked by the newscaster: Go to all the schools, observe, and ask around. You won't get the answers in that short period of time. Even emails don't really show the real situation.

What's happening with the education system in Malaysia is a product of on-going 'constructivism'. It keeps changing and changing that people, particularly teachers and students are suffering from it. And people, particularly parents wants it to be 'reconstructed' again. And they want it to happen so quickly they don't care whether their children are getting the best education or not.

A recap of what Ungku Aziz said just now: The problem with the system is that it keeps changing, and language plays an important role in delivering the content of education. I totally agree with his opinion. The 'nahu', or 'knowledge' of language is important in an effective education. And it needs to start from the age of 2-3. Even if we learn educational psychology, the first thing that a child learns in his early age is language, starting with the word 'mama', and the vocab expands.

And the interviewee moves on with the status of education system. But Ungku Aziz continues with the importance of language in education system. When English and Bahasa Melayu keeps rotating in the teaching of science and Maths, things get messed up and people do not have any idea what they are learning. I ask you one thing: Do you learn science for the sake of knowing the terms or how it actually works? Teachers who have been teaching science in malay has understood the subject by heart. But when the language is changed, their teaching style deteriorates.So you need to understand the language by heart before you can deliver its content.

And the interviewee moves on with the status of education system. But this time Pak Ungku simply said, "I don't have any idea about what's happening with our education system. I don't do research on it". So, simply said, you can't understand a problem unless you do a thorough research on it. And you can't get the conclusion in a short period of time. Just how many people doing research on our education system?  We only have policy makers.

So, what we should do is that we should make a thorough research on this matter. Don't always point fingers at teachers. There are those who make mistakes, but only minority of them. We still have dedicated teachers as majority. And please be consistent with the use of language. People always said that the Japanese and Chinese in China do not have to learn english but can still strive economically. Let me tell you something, you are wrong. They DO learn English, but they are proud of their own language. To them, English is important in global market as well as in science, but they can still put their own language as their priority because of their pride, and its importance in their own country. They can also deliver instruction well in their tongue. And they can learn science using both language. And why can't we?