[Al Arabiya Latest] Malaysia is to abandon teaching math and science in English, saying that far too many children from poor rural areas were being failed by the program.
The decision to start phasing out English medium teaching from 2012 has been backed by the government and Malaysia's main opposition parties, despite concerns that using the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, will undermine competitiveness.
" I would not say it was a complete failure, but it did not achieve what it was supposed to achieve "
Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin |
Malaysia has said recently that it wants to attract more high-value investment in areas like banking and finance, industries that are global and typically demand good English.
Instead of teaching math and science in English, a policy started in 2003, the government will double the time spent on English lessons for primary children and increase that for secondary school children by half.
It said it would hire an additional 14,000 teachers to teach English as a language.
'I would not say it was a complete failure, but it did not achieve what it was supposed to achieve,' Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told a news conference on Wednesday. |