Sarawak already ahead with teaching Maths, Science in English, says state minister

Having already begun to teach Mathematics and Science in English at Primary One level, a state minister from Sarawak has said that any move by the Education Ministry to reinstate the policy at the federal level will pose little problems to their students.

Sarawak education, science and technological research minister Michael Manyin Jawong said the policy has been in place since the beginning of the current school year.

"Yes, we already use English to teach Mathematics and Science effective this month. So for us, there is no issue. I doubt whether he (Dr Mahathir) can convince the parents (in other parts of the country) as he did in the past," he was quoted as saying on Friday by The Borneo Post.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad reportedly revisited his idea for the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English - first introduced in 2003 as the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) programme during his previous tenure in office.

Mahathir, who is now acting education minister, was reported to have made the remarks during a special meeting with the Education Ministry on Thursday

A video of Mahathir's remarks at the meeting was uploaded on his official Youtube account on Friday. However, it does not mention how or when the new teaching policy would be implemented.

Commenting further, Michael reportedly said that his ministry and the Sarawak Education Department are keeping a close eye on the roll-out of the programme to teach the two subjects in English in the first six months.

According to The Borneo Post, Michael said the Sarawak government had spent RM11 million to implement the programme to teach Mathematics and Science in English to Year One students in the state's primary schools.

The expenditure covered the training of over 2,800 teachers and included the cost of printing books and materials.

The programme covers 1,026 primary schools in the state but excludes 220 national-type primary schools which had opted not to teach the two subjects in English this year.

The federal-level PPSMI policy was met with mixed reactions which it was introduced, but it was carried out for nearly 10 years before being scrapped in 2011 and replaced with the "Uphold Bahasa Malaysia and to Strengthen the English language" (MBMMBI) policy.

Mahathir's latest push for the move had once again sparked similar debates, with former deputy education minister P Kamalanathan calling for caution against rushing it through.