BM? English? BM? English?

The policy maker keep changing their minds! Why is that? I do seriously believe its simply because their mouth works muccchhhh faster than their brains! The policy makers being politicians, i suppose you cannot expect much more.

I remember the kids headmistress had asked the parents to continue supporting the subjects to be taught in English because in all her teaching experience she can see that the students have improved much in their development. They may not be smart and scoring but she can see the students gain self confidence and are not shy to make mistakes. FOr maths and science, unlike English, teachers do not look for perfect grammar. It is sufficient that they answer correctly. E.g. water boiling can also be described as water is very hot. Something along that line laa..

So, am wondering, who did the policy makers consulted when they were mulling over this issue? Did they even mull over it? Kononnya, grades were dropping. Really? Then how come many many kids are scoring gazillion As for PMR, SPM, et al?

Anyhoo...how will this affect our children? Mine, in particular. Truth be told, I'm not particularly worried. Not because my children are smart. But because it don't make much difference. Although sekarang ni maths and science are supposedly taught in English, my children tells me their teachers ala-ala mengelat and teach in Malay from time to time. I tengok kertas soalan pun, ada both languages. So, as long as the kids understand the question, they should be OK. For maths in particular coz the answers will be in numbers. Science will be a bit tricky, I guess.

Am hearing radical reactions from friends who are parents. Less so from those with kids in private schools. I suppose they don't intend to send their kids to national varsities anyway. Ada cerita that some parents have taken their kids from public schools and put them into private ones as soon as the annoucement was made. Wow, i remember thinking. Radical nya! But i was also thinking...korang kaya, tak perlaaa...anak sorang dua boleh laaa...

I learned English from my Bapak who spoke English to us at home, who introduced us to the world of ENid Blyton since the day we learn how to read and who allowed us to watch American sitcoms through Singapore channels! I try to do the same to my kids. In the beginning, they were reluctant. They refused to converse in ENglish although they could perfectly understand what I was saying. Alhamdulillah, the sojourn to Geneva helped tremendously. The kids were put in the International school whilst there, and they "embraced" English whole heartedly. So, for us, masa kat Geneva we speak Malay at home. Now dah kat Malaysia, tukar cakap omputih pulak kat rumah. So, alhamdulillah my girls are bi-lingual.

I do hope the policy makers are thinking of a long transitional period. Hopefully, at least for a couple of years beginning 2012, they'll allow some flexibility. Perhaps they can let the students choose whether they want to answer question in BM or ENglish. And in the meantime, they can spend more money training the teachers coz i i actually believe, deep down, its the teachers who are finding it difficult to cope!!