Malaysia: Five years on – and still not up to mark

[Harold Schiffman]

Five years on – and still not up to mark

Why not?: By RASLAN SHARIF

THE rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain". For a long time, that
phrase had me baffled. I would come across it once in a while and
would always ask myself what it meant and where it came from. But I
never really did get around to answering those questions. I continued
in this state of ignorance until I decided to find out once and for
all. Yesterday. I seems the phrase is part of a song, The Rain in
Spain, from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, which was later made into
the Academy Award-winning 1964 film of the same name. As the great
virtual encyclopaedia Wikipedia further explains:

"The song is a key turning point in the plotline of the musical. Prof
Higgins and Col Pickering have been drilling Eliza Doolittle
incessantly with speech exercises, trying to break her Cockney accent
speech pattern.

The key lyric in the song is The rain in Spain stays mainly in the
plain, which contains five words that a Cockney would pronounce more
like 'eye' than long-'a'. With the three of them nearly exhausted,
Eliza finally 'gets it', and recites the sentence with all long-a's."

Well, what do you know? I've never actually seen the film. I'm not
much of a movie buff and 1964 films are, well ... a bit before my
time. But baffling phrases and old films are not the subject of my
column this week. The reason I mention these things is that they have
to do with English, and the teaching and learning of the language.
It's a subject close to many people's hearts here in this land
formerly colonised by native English-speakers, and where issues
related to the language make the newspapers, English or otherwise, on
a regular basis.

And if you took a look at the newspapers recently, the big news is
that students would continue to have a choice of answering Science and
Mathematics UPSR examination papers in either English, Bahasa Malaysia
or the vernacular language of their school. The original plan was to
have English-only exam papers for Science and Mathematics from next
year, after the policy of teaching the two subjects in English was
introduced in 2003. The policy was implemented in phases, starting
with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students. But a few days ago,
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein cautioned that
there would be big problems if we went ahead with the plan.

He said such a move would have a "major impact on pupils in primary
schools and rural schools, and increase the gap between those in rural
and urban areas." That is unfortunate. By the end of the school
semester this year, the "pioneer" group of students would have had
five years of learning Science and Mathematics in English. Five years
might seem like enough time, especially for children who are at the
age when they are able to absorb things quickly, but the Education
Minister's concerns over the students' ability sit for the papers in
English suggest that the general grasp of the language remains average
at best.

Add the fact that these students have also gone through an equal
number of years of instruction in English as a subject, and you begin
to wonder if they have learned much of the language at all.
Hishammuddin said that much depended on the ability of schoolteachers,
and that while many had been trained, there was room for further
improvement. That sounds like an understatement.

If we look at it closely, this is less about the ability of our
children to learn Science and Mathematics, in English or in any other
language, than their ability to learn English. Think about it: For the
past five years, the students, for all intents and purposes, have
actually sat through three times as many English lessons (English as a
subject, and being taught and learning Science and Mathematics in
English) as those who came before them, but many are still not up to
speed. Blame the teachers all you want, but I think their ability to
teach English and teach in English is only part of the problem.

In fact, if the only way for things to get better is for teachers to
get better at these things, then it would be quite a while indeed
before we would have the confidence to have our children sit for the
Science and Mathematics UPSR papers in English.  I believe there's a
way around the problem. And to bolster my argument, I tender as
evidence my eight-year-old son. The boy has little difficulty with his
English, Science and Mathematics lessons.  And when it comes to tests
and exams, he eats these subjects for breakfast. You might think that
my home is like the BBC studio, with people chatting away in the
Queen's English and such, but no.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, we
speak Bahasa Malaysia at home.

I would like to think (and tell proudly you) that my son's a genius,
but the explanation is much more down to earth. You see, he learns
English from TV. No, not the yawn-inducing TV Pendidikan or whatever
that passes for it these days, but children's programmes, both
cartoons and educational shows. I don't want to sound like I'm
plugging for a certain satellite TV channel, but if I were to be
honest, then I would have to say that my son has a host of English
teachers, and they include Ben 10, Teen Titans, Kids Next Door, the
Hi-5 team, Neil from Art Attack, Steve from Blue's Clues, the Justice
League, SpongeBob and Ed, Edd n Eddy.

He even knows a smattering of Spanish, thanks to Dora the Explorer.
The TV shows have clearly had a tremendous impact on him, and at only
RM50 a month, it is a damn sight cheaper than the cost of tuition for
primary-level English, Science and Mathematics. There is a slight
problem though – my son speaks English with an American accent. But
let's not get too choosy, shall we? I could always get a copy of My
Fair Lady and have him see it.

http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2007/11/2/columnists/whynot/19340008&sec=Why%20Not
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