Media statement by Edward Ewol Mujie in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday, 31^st December 2011:

Teaching of Maths and Science in English

There should not be any uncertainty that whether the Mathematic and Science subjects can be taught in using English language or not in Sabah when the school starts in January. This was explained by the Sabah Education Director Datuk Dr Muhiddin Yusin that his department is still trying to know which schools have the capacity to teach both the subjects in English. He said the school offering the English would have a tough time coping with the parents to have their children admitted to these schools.

The Education director futher said that the problem is aggreviated by teachers wanting to be transferred to the Peninsular but also wanted to transfer from one school to another within the state. He also said that there are many other problems to be sorted out before a school can offer to teach the two subjects in English. The shortage of 300 English teachers is a major headache and drawback in implementing the plans.

The problem in implementing the English teaching in maths and science is nothing but all the bad planning and fickle-minded policy making. There is no proper planning and arrangement prior to implementing, and every thing is last minute decision which took control over the event. The previous person decided on things, and the next person comes along and changed things all over. By the look of it the director is true that English to teach maths and science will not be possible by January.

If this is determined by the availability of the English teachers who can teach maths and science in Primary and secondary schools, why the Ministry of Education and its Minister did not find a possible solution well before any announcement. They just merely passed on the burden and headache to the local education officers. In return, the school children and the parents faced with the big problems now.

I suggest that there are ways that the Education department can solve the problem on the shortage of English teachers. The simple ways is to re-engage the retired English teachers on contract basis with better pay and to employ from overseas countries where English speaking teachers can be easily found. This can be done because in Sabah we used to have many oversea English teachers came from overseas to teach here, and they were good. Many of our Ministers were their students too. If the government can give away so many hundreds of million ringgits to the people under the BR1M at RM500 per person, why can't they spend the money to employ more good English teachers for the sake of our future generations?

The Education department should not delay this by way of excuses and saying that they are not ready. The department must quickly identify and make arrangement to get the subjects to be taught in English. You can wait but the student cannot! How can we build a new Malaysia with this type of system and attitude?

* Edward Ewol Mujie, DAP Sabah State Vice Chairman & Local Government and Housing Bureau Chief