faulker059

I just read an interesting article in The New Yorker about English instruction in China which I thought I'd share with you. The article's focus is on Li Yang (李阳), who claims to have taught 20 million people how to speak English, and holds English classes in stadiums. It's a fascinating read. The part I personally found most interesting, though, was this paragraph, which I think really gives us an insight into how big a deal learning English has become for Chinese: China has been in the grip of "English fever," as the phenomenon is known in Chinese, for more than a decade. A vast national appetite has elevated English to something more than a language: it is not simply a tool but a defining measure of life’s potential. China today is divided by class, opportunity, and power, but one of its few unifying beliefs—something shared by waiters, politicians, intellectuals, tycoons—is the power of English. Every college freshman must meet a minimal level of English compr...

Headline in the Star today - 51.2% of candidates chose English and English only to answer their PMR Science exam compared with 30.8% who answer in Malay and 18% who used a combination of the two. In the previous year, only 21.5% used English and only English. This is a pretty big jump. I would have liked to see the breakdown for Math as well to see if there was a similar jump. Perhaps this may be a sign that there will not be a complete reversion to the previous policy of teaching S&M in BM or mother tongue at the primary school level? I suspect that a compromise decision may be made. Either continue teaching S&M in English at the secondary school level or start after Primary 3.

One interesting thing I noticed about the roundtable that the Education Ministry held to discuss the issue of teaching science and maths in English is that they mentioned decentralisation of the school system as a possible solution. In my column for The Malaysian Insider a couple of weeks back, I suggested that we let individual schools decide what languages to use in the classroom . Permitting schools to decide on an individual basis how to operate would let school administrators and educators tailor their approach to the needs of individual communities, and permit greater feedback from communities. There are naturally some administrative difficulties involved in moving from a highly centralised school system such as ours to a less centralised one, but it is important that we give this issue some thought. Treating students the same wherever they are is not a very reasonable approach, and tying the hands of schools when it comes to responding to local needs is a very bad idea. While fu...

I know that this issue has been flogged to death but I had a thought about this yesterday. Regardless of the outcome, there will be groups that will be unhappy. But one thing which I commend the Ministry of Education for is that they did expend time and resources to seek feedback from different groups. This is a far cry from the way this policy was implemented which was basically a executive decision with little or no debate. According to a Star report , MOE has held 5 roundtable meetings thus far soliciting feedback from different 'stakeholders' including representatitives from PTAs, NGOs and academics. In addition, MOE also presented some of their internal papers and analysis on the UPSR results to some of these stakeholders which I thought was a progressive way of allowing the stakeholders to evaluate the findings of the MOE and then discuss those findings. In addition, the MOE was flexible enough to put different proposals on the table. The proposals are: > Stick ...

To build on Kian Ming's points about students from Botswana , I thought I would relate my own experience from spending one-and-a-half years at a local college with many foreign students, especially from Botswana. As I mentioned before , I did my A-Levels in KDU College, an institution that has attracted many foreign students interested in pursuing degrees in law, engineering, and other disciplines. My foreign classmates were mostly from the Maldives, India and Bangladesh, and most of them had no problem integrating with the locals. At the same time, there were often a lot of students from other countries in other programs - guys from Botswana, Mauritius, places in the Middle East. One thing I observed is that most of the African students kept to themselves in their own cliques, while students from other places mixed with the locals freely. To some extent this can be attributed to racial attitudes. People from the Indian subcontinent look like locals, and so we probably have an easi...

Maybe I was jumping the gun in saying that Malaysia is a good place for international students to come to especially those who are from Muslim majority countries. The Star reported that the Education and Skills Development Minister of Botswana, Jacob Nkate, said that they would be cutting down the number of students sent to Malaysia because they were not acclimatising well to life in Malaysia. The Minister's decision was influenced partly because of the social issues some of the Botswanan students have encountered while studying in Malaysia. Two of them died after falling from their apartment balconies and another was killed in a road accident. It was reported that the students blamed the hostile environment they encountered in Malaysia that forced many of them to turn to alcoholism and other anti-social behaviour. This is not the first time I've heard of the challenges faced by foreign students in Malaysia. The ugly head of racism usually rears its head partly because we don...

Thanks for the introduction , Kian Ming! I think a lot of you might have stumbled across my personal website, Infernal Ramblings in the past, or perhaps read one of the weekly columns I write for The Malaysian Insider. Although I am of course interested in political affairs, I would just like to emphasise that I remain politically unaffiliated, and that I think a vigorous debate about education in Malaysia should be encouraged, because fewer things can be more important than the future of our country and our people. For my first post, I thought I would introduce my educational background and give you a better idea of where I am coming from, and why I care so much about education. My parents are both graduate degree-holders, and actually met when they were pursuing their Masters degrees. I was born in Japan while my dad finished his post-doctoral work, and then moved to Singapore, where my father taught at Nanyang Technological University for about six years; two of my siblings were bo...

There's a new addition to the blogging team here at Education in Malaysia. Tony has been really busy with his responsibilities as an MP and I anticipate that I'll have to restrict my blogging activities as I try to finish up my PhD next year. Also, we thought that it would be good to bring in a fresh perspective. Someone younger and who would look at things from a different angle. The new member of our team is John Lee Ming Keong, a sophomore at Dartmouth. I first met John at a blogger's meeting in Subang Jaya a few years back. This was before he left for the US to start his undergraduate degree. He came across as a precocious and idealistic young man then and his interest in things to do with Malaysia including the education arena has not waned even as he has immersed himself in the US education experience. You can read more about him on his personal blog. I'll leave him to introduce himself on this blog. Welcome JohnLeeMK!

I was chatting with a student from an Islamic country this morning. He seems like a really bright guy and he was interested in doing a PhD on Islamic Finance in a Malaysian university. This got me thinking. Malaysia should use its comparative advantage as a Muslim majority country where English is widely spoken and used at the higher education level to attract bright and young aspiring scholars from other Muslim majority countries to do research in Malaysia. This is an untapped market. Many bright young potential scholars from countries like Pakistan and Nigeria may not have the necessary background and resources to apply to universities in the developed world to do their PhDs. Some of them also may not want to apply to some of these countries because of the visa restrictions post 9-11. Malaysia is actually a good place for some of these scholars to do their PhDs. There is more cultural affinity because Malaysia is a Muslim majority country which means easy access to mosques and halal ...

Interesting points raised by the MP for Rasah, Anthony Loke , on the effects of AUKU / UUCA. I particularly like the 3 M's (menyalin, menghafal and muntah). The final point he made is a good one. Replace AUKU / UUCA with AUTU - Akta Urus Tadbir Universiti. This would mean that the restrictions on political activities on the part of the students would be replaced by an Act which specifies the administrative procedures required for political activity to take place on campus. For example, there are many guidelines which US universities have to follow to keep their status as non-partisan non-profits. Political activity is allowed but there are different internal administrative rules used such that the university administration is not put in a position where they are found to have supported one side or the other. Professors and students are free to campaign but not on university time or resources. Malaysia should do something similar. But this won't happen under the present adminis...

Was alerted by a friend of a free downloadable book that every medical and wanabee medical student should read before and during his or her medical degree. The book is written by Dr. Phar Cheng Kar, who's a clinical psychologist at HUKM. He started out in vet school at UPM before transferring to the medical school. Enjoy the stories, the graphics and the life lessons!

One of the first initiatives announced by new UM VC, Prof Ghauth Jasmon, is the decision to increase the number of post graduate students at the UM and reducing the number of undergrads. This is not really something new. We've blogged about it here and here . Many of my previously expressed concerns are still valid today. What I fear more is that this may be a smokescreen that the new VC will be forced to use to increase the number of foreigners at the postgrad level in an attempt to artificially boost UM's position in the THES rankings. This is a sample of what I previously blogged about: The first question that comes to mind is this - where are all these 'extra' postgraduate students going to come from? According to the same Table, to achieve this three fold increase in postgraduate student enrolment, we need to have an annual average growth rate of 26% for the next 5 years. That seems like a pretty tall task. Imagine a faculty with 40 Phd students and 40 Masters stu...

Have your say! The Star SMS Poll, Tuesday 16 Dec 2008 Should Mathematics and Science continue to be taught in English in primary schools? YES - type STAR NEWS1 A and send to 32088 NO - type STAR NEWS1 B and send to 32088 Polling begins at 7am and ends at 5pm today, Tuesday 16 Dec 2008. Each SMS will cost 30 sen. In the case of multiple entries, only your last vote will be taken into account.

After all the questions and reports we've received on the Barisan Nasional propaganda organ in the form of Biro Tatanegara, blogged here , here and here , I had earlier submit a question to the Prime Minister's office for further clarification. [Petaling Jaya Utara] minta Perdana Menteri menyatakan tindakan yang akan diambil ke atas pihak pensyarah Biro Tatanegara yang menggalakkan fikiran racist apabila mendesak bahaya "kalau ular dengan India depan mata, ketuk India India dulu" dan menayangkan video menuduh pemimpin Teresa Kok dan Ezam Mohd Noor sebagai penyokong "Zionist". You can read for yourself the reply from the PM office here (well, which basically is "deny, deny, and deny further"). Biro Tatanegara (BTN) adalah sebuah agensi yang menjalankan kursus berkaitan kenegaraan dan juga semangat patriotisme di kalangan rakyat Malaysia keseluruhannya. Peserta-peserta yang menghadiri kursus berkenaan terdiri daripada pelbagai kaum dan peringkat um...

In case any of our readers are wondering, no, I've not lost track of the current debate on teaching Science and Math in English. Partly because of time and partly because of the complexity and the deep feelings which all sides have on this issue, I've tried to take a little bit more time to digest and reflect on the latest round of reactions and counter-reactions to this issue. My gut tells me that the Education Minister, Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, will probably revert to teaching Science and Math in BM, Chinese and Tamil at the primary school level but allow this policy to continue at the secondary school level. It will be a political decision, even if the Minister says otherwise. The sad thing for me is that most of the people who are pushing for a reversion back to the old policy are doing it for selfish reasons and do not have the benefit of the students in mind. I'll explain what I mean by this. Most of those who are pushing for a reversion to the previous policy of teac...

I haven't had a chance to go through the latest amendment to the UUCA that is working its way through parliament right now but from what I've read from newspaper reports , the changes are cosmetic at best. Giving some autonomy to the universities may be good only if there is progressive and forward looking leadership within our public universities. But ultimately, the VCs know that they keep their jobs by pleasing their political masters at the MOHE. Students in public universities still cannot join political parties which I find to be an infringement on the rights of our students. Interestingly, the MOHE Minister, Khaled Nordin, said that this act was not applicable to UiTM because UiTM was set up under it's own Act. I wonder if this means that students and faculty at UiTM can be members of certain political parties? After all, the current UiTM VC , Datuk Seri Prof Ibrahim Abu Shah, is an unapologetic member of UMNO and has been since his days as a lecturer way back then.

Below is an edited version of an email I sent to an academic in UM whom I've been corresponding with. I received news from this academic that the new UM VC was being pushed to bring UM back into the top 200 in the THES rankings within 2 years and back into the top 100 within 5 years. One of the things he's been trying to do is to 'force' UM academics to publish a minimum of 2 articles in journals which are considered 'impactful' journals (or ISI journals). My advice to the UM VC: Concentrate on cleaning up the promotion process instead of being distracted by this pipe dream of climbing the THES rankings. Apologies for the late reply. Was overdosing on turkey yesterday. This is what I wrote to the new VC in a previous post : P.S. One of the first pieces of 'advice' I would give to Dr. Jasmon is to read the measurements in the THES rankings very carefully. That way, he can avoid making some of the same mistakes made by his predecessors. For example, Rafiah...

I'm doing a plug for a friend who's at the relatively new Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School down in Singapore. If you have any questions about the program, you can contact her at sally.ong (at) nus.edu.eg. Dear Students, As you consider your medical school options, let me take this opportunity to suggest that attending Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School could be one of these exciting possibilities. The newest of the National University of Singapore’s graduate schools, and the first American-model medical school in Singapore, Duke-NUS is the brainchild of Duke University School of Medicine, NUS and the Singapore government. The Times Higher Education rankings places NUS in the top 30 universities world wide and one of the leading universities in Asia. At Duke-NUS, we seek outstanding individuals with strong passion for medicine and dedication to scientific learning to become physicians, physician scientists, and academic physicians. You could be one of them. Our class would be enri...

I've blogged about alternative career paths before, here . Definitely not as much as Tiara though. Those of you who are interested in an alternative take on education should definitely take a look at her blog . Wanted to highlight the story of Corrine May, a Singaporean singer and songwriter who's currently based in LA. You can read about her here . She graduated with an English degree from NUS in Singapore and then went to pursue her dreams of making music by going to the Berklee School of Music , not to be confused with UCal at Berkeley. She's pretty accomplished by now and I think she's going to be a name which many people in the music industry will soon be familiar with. (She co-wrote a song with Carole King for a songwriting competition! How cool is that!) You can listen to her music here and here . She definitely does NOT sound Singaporean or Asian and the content of her songs is also very 'unSingaporean'. Take a listen to see what I mean. I know of anoth...