Sat Feb 4 15:59:59 UTC 2017

English language policy affects all 3 February 2017 @ 9:27 AM Facebook 3
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 The English language policy in Malaysia is interesting. In the early years
of independence, the English language was spoken by British expatriates and
Malay aristocrats. With the establishment of English schools — such as
Penang Free School, Victoria Institution and King Edward’s College — the
English language was considered one step higher than Malay, Tamil,
Cantonese. Those who had an English education background could further
their studies overseas and secure a government position. But, the
socio-cultural condition in the early years of independence changed due to
the May 13, 1969, race riots. This forced the government to declare a state
of emergency To ease the racial tension that caused the incident, the
government adopted policies to make sure a similar incident would not
recur. In the case of the language policy, the government implemented the
National Language Act to uphold Bahasa Malaysia as the national language to
nurture unity among the races. Bahasa Malaysia is taught in every school
and this has an effect on the English language, which has lost its
importance to Bahasa Malaysia. In 1991, the government realised the
importance of the English language policy, when the prime minister launched
Vision 2020. In other words, by 2020, Malaysia will become a developed
nation. Every sector was boosted to meet the developed-nation standard. At
this time, the empowerment of the English language was seen as important
for the government, since most developed countries used English as the
medium for communication, business and in trade negotiations. To boost the
English language, the government, through the Education Ministry, drafted
several policies, including the Teaching and Learning of Science and
Mathematics in English. After years of negotiation, the English-medium
education policy was introduced in 2003. This policy had a mixed reaction
from students and parents. There were students who did well under the
policy, but there were also others who had difficulty coping with English
and they were mostly from rural areas. In 2012, the Education Ministry
phased out this policy and the teaching and learning of Science and
Mathematics were reverted to Bahasa Malaysia. The same situation happened
to another policy, when the ministry postponed English language as a
compulsory-pass policy. This caused a stir among the public, language
activists, non-governmental organisations and English-educated parents. The
ministry must apply concrete action to every policy. Discussions and
negotiations must play an important role, and every stakeholder must be
included in every policy that will be implemented. The English language
policy is considered a public policy and the implementation will leave an
impact on stakeholders. Such a policy requires a lot of money. If the
policy doesn’t cater to the need of stakeholders and does not benefit
people, it will be a waste of taxpayers’ money. Nasrul Rahman Ghazali
Kajang, Selngor

Read More :
http://www.nst.com.my/news/2017/02/209183/english-language-policy-affects-all

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