[lg policy] Kazakhstan to teach science & math in English

[Harold Schiffman]

All:  Regarding the proposal by Nazarbayev to teach science & math
in English (http://www.kaztag.kz/en/news/detail.php?ID=349622)  I had the
following questions:

1.  Where is Kazakhstan going to find a huge group of science/math teachers
who are fluent in English?

2. If there are none, how will Kazakhstan go about training some?  Does it
have a teachers' college that can handle this?

3.  How much will this cost, and how long will it take to produce enough
teachers to meet the needs of all the country's schools?

4.  Is there a schedule for how this will be implemented?  How will it be
verified that the trainees have attained the proficiency required of them
in both STEM subjects and English?

5.  Has Mr. Nazarbayev looked more closely at the situation in Malaysia
that he is trying to replicate?  Does he know that things have not gone
smoothly there, and that some people are demanding a return to teaching
STEM subjects in Malay?  Does he know that rural areas with small schools
are having a much harder time attracting and keeping competent teachers?

6.  This whole business looks like the worst kind of language planning, the
kind where a strong leader *ordains* a policy, but shows no understanding
of what is involved in implementing and carrying out an effective language
policy, but expects things to happen just because he wants it to be so.

HS

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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