Malaysia (Tak Berapa) Boleh!

The recent ruling to stop teaching Mathematics and Science in English is the worst decision made under Najib's administration. It has been 6 years since this program started and the government felt that the objectives were not achieved and decided to scrap this program.

I lived in a rural area until my teens. No one in my village spoke English, but my mom had the foresight to send me to a school in the town area, where I would get better education, and at least, learn how to speak English.

We speak a little bit of English at home, I conversed with my friends in English and Malay in school. Even with 5 periods of English each week in school, and speaking English to my friends, I was in for a shock when I went to university.

Everything was in English. The text books, the reference books. Some lecturers allowed our assignments and projects to be done in English but there were some who insisted we submit our work in Malay.

I saw my dorm-mates read their reference books with a dictionary next to them. Every other minute they paused to look up the meaning of words.

When the government decided to teach Math and Science in English a few years ago, I was overjoyed. There is hope for our children.

But now, that hope has been snatched away again.