LETTER | What will spur Malaysia into the future

LETTER | I refer to your article 'Anwar to meet Geely tomorrow on US$10b investments to dispel rumours' on Oct 10 and its accompanying video.

In our quest to uphold the Malay language at the expense of English, Mandarin and even Tamil, parents gasp as we feel the hunger for seeking scientific and technological knowledge by the younger generation fading away.

Yet we all know it is science, critical thinking, problem-solving, technology and innovation that will spur Malaysia into the future.

While our neighbours such as Vietnam gain ground economically, we are still debating over language dominance and continuing to place obstacles in front of our children who want to excel in the language of technology, which is English.

During parliamentary question time, the prime minister remarked that while our major foreign investors were satisfied with our engineering skills and levels, there is still, however, a grave concern that local talents are falling behind in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

He will be approaching the Higher Education Ministry and its vice-chancellors to find an immediate and workable, albeit short-term, band-aid solution.

We urge the prime minister to ensure continuity, sustainability and for the medium to long-term, to instantly reinforce what is already in place - a significant expansion of the Dual Language Programme (DLP) coupled with Inquiry-based science education (IBSE).

The Education Ministry needs to view DLP and IBSE from a wider and more dynamic lens. The DLP is not merely to improve English language proficiency which is the essential building block for AI but also to nurture students to understand scientific and mathematical concepts in its lingua franca.

With proper support and guidance, students can build a strong foundation in science which, in turn, will create a desire and interest to seamlessly capture state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology, especially in AI.

Currently, only 20.74 percent of primary schools and 33.21 percent of secondary schools offer DLP.

Subtracting the number of Sarawak schools, the primary schools offering DLP significantly drop to 4.5 percent only. In terms of pupils, only 7.4 percent of primary school students and 12.17 percent of secondary school students are eligible to enrol in DLP classes.

With a considerable budget, DLP should instead be re-looked, re-studied and reviewed to consciously and systematically expand the number of DLP schools, DLP classes and increase significantly the number of pupils enjoying DLP.

The training of teacher trainers, teacher trainees and in-service teachers needs to be boosted as this appears to be the main obstacle.

We have reached a critical stage. Embrace change.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.