Failure of Nur Amalina Che Bakri status clarified

Linundus has received a letter through e-mail from Charis Wong who is currently a 3rd year Edinburgh medical student and a course-mate of Nur Amalina Che Bakri, clarifying the latter’s status as a 17A1 scorer which appeared in this blog.

"Dear all. I'm Charis, currently a 3rd year Edinburgh medical student.

I'm writing this as I'm absolutely saddened and disgusted by the rumours spread about my course mate Nur Amalina Che Bakri or more popular known on the net as the 17A1 scorer. To clarify, she is doing very well and is actually doing an intercalated honours degree in Pharmacology with Industrial Experience.

She did not fail her second year but actually did quite well. That intercalated degree is a very competitive one and she obtained it by her merit (with Bank Negara's funding). If I'm not mistaken, she has also obtained an ERASMUS transfer programme where she can do part of that course in a partner European university. She will be returning to 3rd year medicine in 2010, and if all things go well, graduate in 2013.

I understand that there is widespread dissatisfaction about the allocation of scholarships in Malaysia. However, whether it is just or not, I think that Nur Amalina or other scholars should never be victimised by false rumours. It is NOT their fault, whatever it is. Leave her alone, please.

If your anger or frustration is meant to be at the scholarship-givers, i.e. the government or other organisations giving out scholarships, let it be directed at them and them only, and voice out your concerns and frustrations in a manner worthy of a concern citizen.

There are flaws to the system, no doubt. There's the question on whether such a heavy cost of sending a scholar overseas is justified.

Then, there is the issue of scholars who 'disappear' after graduating. There are scholars who fail year after a year, costing taxpayers a huge sum of money. And there's always that talk about the unclear criteria of selection for scholarships.

But let's get our facts right before pointing our fingers, and perhaps check who we are pointing our fingers at, lest we wrongly defame and even character assassinate young scholars with great potential." Your fellow Malaysian,

Charis Wong

Wong can be reached at C.H.L.Wong@sms.ed.ac.uk

The Failure of Nur Amalina (who scored 17A's)

Nur Amalina had held briefly the record of the most A's scored in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Upon the announcement of results of SPM 2004 on 26 March 2005, she received 17 1As - a record for number of A's received by a student in the history of Malaysian education back then. She was sponsored by Bank Negara Malaysia to study medicine in the United Kingdom, and did her A-levels at the Cheltenham Ladies College in the UK.

Now Malaysia Push Factors was informed that she had failed her second year medical study at the University of Edinburgh.

What went wrong? Could English language be the problem? We are going back to Malay medium again and that means trouble.

If the students score an exemplary number of distinctions (A's in Malaysia) in a public exam, they are considered the pinnacle of what the Country's education system is capable of producing. They are expected to go through tertiary education anywhere in the world with flushing success. So what could possibly have happened if they fail abroad?

READ MORE HERE

In Malaysia, English Ban Raises Fears for Future

By LIZ GOOCH

Published: July 9, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR — P.S. Han, a teacher in Kuala Lumpur, has been using English to teach math and physics to 17-year-olds for the past six years.

From 2012, he will be forced to return to using the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, after the government decided to abandon English for the two subjects in a decision some consider to be motivated by politics rather than education.

“English has been used as the language of science for 300 years,” said Mr. Han, a teacher at St. John’s Institution. “You cannot really convey the scientific concepts to the students in Bahasa Malaysia at avery high level.”

“We have to face the fact that science knowledge is in English.”

The announcement on Wednesday, which came after months of lobbying by Malay nationalists, has raised concerns about whether English standards in the former British colony will slide and whether Malaysia’s competitiveness as a destination for multinational companies may suffer.

English has been the language of instruction for math and science in Malaysia since 2003, when former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad introduced the policy amid concerns that poor English skills were hindering students’ job opportunities.

Mr. Mahathir expressed sadness over the decision to revert to Bahasa Malaysia, saying that the decision would adversely affect children and make it difficult for them to keep abreast of scientific developments, the national news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.

The government cited a decline in students’ math and science grades, particularly in rural areas, as one of the reasons behind the switch.

However, Khoo Kay Kim, emeritus professor of Malaysian history at the University of Malaysia, said that teachers had not been adequately trained before the policy was introduced.

He described Malaysia’s English standards as “pathetic.”

“Fewer and fewer of our professors can now write in English,” he said. “We used to lead Asia in terms of English, and now we have allowed ourselves to slip below other Asian countries.”

Mr. Khoo said it was a “national shame” that the country’s oldest university, the University of Malaysia, had fallen behind other Asian universities in international rankings, a trend he attributed to declining English standards.

He also raised concerns that poor English standards may affect Malaysia’s international competitiveness, saying that multinational companies may struggle to find graduates with good English.

“If less and less Malaysians know English, how are multinational companies going to come into this country?” he said. “If we don’t have the workforce who can fit into multinational companies, how are they going to come here?”

Malaysia’s business community has long been concerned about the reported decline in English standards in schools. “The business community feels that English is imperative for Malaysia’s international competitiveness,” said Michael Yeoh, chief executive the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, an independent research organization.

Mr. Yeoh said that more needed to be done to improve English standards, but questions remained over whether teaching science and math in English was the best method.

“We don’t really know exactly how this could impede on the study of English,” he said.

The Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed the government’s decision to increase the number of English teachers and teaching hours.

Its executive director, Stewart Forbes, said that the need to emphasize English must continue to be part of the government’s policy.

“Private sector companies in Malaysia continue to complain about graduates’ communication skills in general, and English skills in particular, and the government’s efforts to raise the level of English expertise are very worthwhile,” he said.

Some educators from Malaysia’s two largest minority groups, the Chinese and Indian communities, welcomed the decision to revert to using Chinese and Tamil for science and math in vernacular schools, local media reported.

However, many parents and the National Union of the Teaching Profession have expressed concern over the decision to scrap English.

Shazlin Aidani, a mother of three, said she wanted her children to learn math and science in English.

“When they graduate and go to work everything will be in English, not Bahasa,” she said.

Source: The New York Times

PM Najib point of view.

The First Bungle – Jaga Bahasa Biar Jahanam Bangsa

By Syed Akbar Ali

In one of my Four Wheel Drive trips into the jungle some years ago, we stopped at a place called Cheneh in Terengganu. I remember a makcik at a roadside stall made some nice ayam goreng. My good friend Juhaidi was with me and also my two boys.

Cheneh was (and maybe still is) a typical rural backwater. The folks did not seem to know if they were coming or they were going. There was Astro but I think the favorite show was ‘Tom Tom Bak’. But I did recall saying aloud that someday I hope that the folks in Cheneh would watch CNN, BBC and CBS and that we could just drive up and ask the makcik in Cheneh ‘Whats on CNN today?’ But I think that’s not going to happen at all.

Tuan Tuan dan Puan Puan, our Prime Minister Dato Najib has made his first bungle – and within the first 100 days too. No Sirs, it is a major bungle. You have bungled big time.

Lets manage this “crisis in the making” now. First of all please stop from saying anything more about the switch from English to Malay. The more things you say, the more “face saving” devices you will need for you to swallow your pride before you can undo this mistake. But this mistake must be undone.

I just happened to be with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad yesterday Thursday July 9th 09 slightly after noon when the news came in that the Cabinet had decided to flip flop over the language issue.

Firstly Tun Dr Mahathir raised a simple but valid point. The main reason quoted by Tan Sri Muhyuddin to favor the switch to Malay was that the rural Malay kids were doing poorly in Maths and Science (which are taught in English) compared to the urban kids. But what about exam scores for the rural kids in all other subjects which are taught in the Malay language? Dr Mahathir said no one showed him the statistics for that. Why?

If you say that English is the reason why the rural kids are doing so poorly in Maths and Science, then by your logic the rural kids should be scoring the same as or better than the urban kids in other subjects that are taught in Malay? By your logic rural kids should be doing better than the urban kids in Sejarah, Geografi, Kemahiran Hidup, Bahasa Malaysia and other Malay language subjects.

But we know that rural kids generally score lower than urban kids in most subjects (except maybe Agama). And language has got nothing to do with it. Rural kids are usually found in lower income households, their parents are usually less educated, they have less achievement goals and so forth. That is why you call them ‘children from rural areas’. They are poor people and they are underachievers.

So this comparison with rural kids and urban kids is not fully accurate (Tun Dr Mahathir used another word which I need not repeat here).

Let me give you some street feedback. At least one Internet based employment agency has instructions from its clients to completely ignore any job applicants who are graduates from UITM (University ITM). As we know UITM graduates are all Malays. They say the quality of the graduates is low and their English is bad.. They are unemployable. This is what I heard.

Another preference by another employer – a Multi National Corporation - in the job market is to take in job applicants who are graduates of IPTA (private universities) who have done twinning programs. This means their English is good and they are more marketable. Again this means Malays with poor English skills are not preferred. Bottom of the line.

And here is some news from Cyberjaya. We opened up Cyberjaya and gave foreign investors much benefits and incentives to open business there. Among the foreign investments in Cyberjaya are ‘Call Centers’. Well some ‘Call Centers’ in Cyberjaya take in Indians as a first choice for employment. They feel that generally Indians speak better English. Second choice are Chinese. Finally they will look at Malays as the last choice but rarely. Even with the emphasis on English the past six years, the Malays cannot speak enough English to get a job answering telephones in Call Centers in Cyberjaya.

We cannot shut them down or arrest them under the ISA for practising such discrimination. They come here for business. We must provide them the tools necessary to run their businesses well. We are not doing the job.

To Dato Najib and Tan Sri Muhyuddin Yassin, why are you doing this? Who agrees with you? Who are you afraid of? Takkan UMNO Johor is so powerful to frighten Muhyuddin?

Last nite I met a Deputy Minister and a well known “ultra Malay” ex-newspaper editor. The Deputy Minister said it was a bad decision to switch back to Malay. The ‘ultra Malay’ ex-editor was visibly upset and said “I have no comments. I don’t want to say anything.” I think he did not agree with the switch at all.

Another well known “ultra-ultra” Malay defender of all things Malay (if I just mention his job you will know who he is) said the switch to Malay was ‘satu langkah ke belakang’.

A Tan Sri from Kelantan said in English “this is a giant leap backward for the Malays”.

In the present world, the English language is a ‘life giving’ language. The amount of new knowledge and new information that comes out in the English language is astounding. No one can translate all the new knowledge and information that comes out in English EACH and EVERY DAY. It is impossible. We have to master this language. There is no other way.

Then we have the ‘tidak masuk akal’ ideas. Tan Sri Muhyuddin says after the switch back to Malay, he still wants to upgrade the teaching of English in the rural schools. He wants to employ about 1000 native English speakers to teach English in rural schools. By native speaker I do not know if he is referring to Mrs Naidu from Brickfields or if he wants to employ real Mat Sallehs from outside the country.

Mrs Naidu the retired English teacher will gladly teach English to our children for RM3000 per month. But we will have to pay the Mat Sallehs RM15,000 a month or more before they will come to work here.

But if that is a good idea then why not employ 1000 Mat Sallehs at RM15000 a month to teach Maths and Science in English in the rural schools?

Because according to Tan Sri Muhyuddin, it is not the school children in the rural schools who are to be faulted. The real culprits are the teachers. Muhyuddin let the cat out of the bag. Here is what Muhyuddin said (from the Press):

“It was based on empirical studies and other specialist reviews,” he said. Based on studies conducted in 2008, he said, the ministry found that only a small percentage of teachers fully used English to teach the two subjects. “On average, the percentage of those using English during Mathematics and Science periods was around 53% to 58%,” he said, adding that only a small number of teachers were proficient. Muhyiddin said studies carried out by local universities found that students’ mastery level of English during the entire policy was around 3% while the level among rural students was low.”

So don’t push the blame on the rural students lah.

It is the teachers who were malas to teach in English. And there are other reasons why some Malay teachers do not use English. Among them are religious reasons because some people believe that speaking English may lead to you ‘jadi kristian’.

Even in the towns (including Kuala Lumpur) it is also considered “showing off” if Malay people speak English. So there are other quite illogical reasons why Malay teachers are shy to speak and teach in English. Don’t just blame it (and quite wrongly too) on the rural school children. That is not correct.

And even if what Tan Sri Muhyuddin is saying is indeed true, why burden the urban kids and dim their chances at a better future just because the rural kids are having problems with English?

Urban kids are usually the children of parents who are more educated, who work in offices, run businesses and generally earn a higher income and enjoy a better standard of living. The rural folks are usually much poorer than the urban folks.

That is why we have to make sure that the rural folks get the same or better opportunities to get out of the poverty cycle and move up in life so that they too can enjoy a standard of living like the urban people. A good education and the ability to converse in English is definitely one way up.

But what this policy reversal has done is to lower the entire national average. Instead of moving the rural people up the ladder, we are now moving moving the urban folks down to the level of the rural people. We are lowering the averages. Hang tak payah jadi pandai macam aku, biar aku jadi bodoh macam hang !

We are nailing the Malays inside the language cocoon. We are also creating a “non English understanding rural poor” versus an “English speaking urban elite” divide. The Malays who cannot speak English will be left further and further behind.

The English speaking urban folks (Malays, Chinese and Indians) will move light years ahead of the non English speaking folks. There will most definitely be an English speaking elite in the country. More problems will arise.

Then we have also allowed International Schools in the country to be opened to all Malaysians. We also have foreign universities like Nottingham and Monash. We are basically denying many Malays from qualifying to enter these universities and international schools. They can go to UITM and become more ‘cocoon infested’ and unemployable.

But very, very few kids make it to university or college in the first place. Only 2% to 3% of the population goes to university anyway. The large bulk of our young kids will become school leavers (SPM or PMR) with no employable skills, no knowledge of “life giving” English. Their future is doomed.

Akhir sekali saya nampak peluang hidup bagi budak Melayu dari kampong menjadi lagi tipis. Siapa yang ada tanah getah, mungkin akan kerja potong getah saja di kampong. Kalau tak ada tanah getah, depa akan berhijrah ke Bandar dan pekan untuk mencari kerja sebagai office boy, messenger dan peon.

They may even think that office boy, messenger and peon are three different careers.

Please reverse this policy. It is a very big mistake.

Syed Akbar Ali is a businessman, property developer, author, company director, newspaper columnist, NEAC economic consultant and banker.

Related article from Chedet.

Najib: Government to introduce new category of scholarships

By DHARMENDER SINGH

PUTRAJAYA: A new category of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships will be introduced next year based purely on merit, regardless of race.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he was sure that such a category would be welcomed by all communities, including the Chinese.

“We are restudying the distribution of scholarships under the Public Service Department scheme to introduce a new category.

“We will announce it next year and with the plan to limit the Sijil Pelajaran Malay-sia to 10 subjects, we expect to see a more level playing field,” he said in his speech at a dinner organised by the MCA and the Associated Chinese Chamber of Com-merce and Industry Malaysia here yesterday.

Najib said this would allow Malay-sia’s best students to receive aid to pursue higher studies.

“So the best of the best and the creme de la creme will get aid for higher studies.

“I believe this will be accepted well and it will allow each individual a fair chance to realise his full potential,” he said, adding, however, that he was not “letting the cat out of the bag” just yet about the scheme.

Artistry: Najib (right) looking at a painting during a dinner function at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre here last night. With him are MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat (second from right) and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (third from right). — Bernama

Najib said that contrary to perception, not all Chinese were rich.

“Like all Malaysians, they also want to see their children have a good education and become successful. All this involves costs,” he said, adding that every race had its needs and if the Government could bring policies that were fair, the Chinese would continue to support the Barisan Nasional.

Najib said the Chinese were not against Malays succeeding or were opposed to efforts to help the bumiputras, but that they wanted policies which looked at the needs of all Malaysians fairly.

“And that’s why I included it in the 1Malaysia concept,” he said, adding that he would also look into MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat’s request for more government land to build Chinese vernacular schools.

Najib said that during his trip to China, the Chinese government had also promised to bring more investments to Malaysia.

“I’m told they are preparing a loan fund as a sign of their commitment to us. I believe there is an opportunity for China to help boost Malaysia’s economy in terms of development, which will include the banking sector as well,” he said.

“I have also looked into the needs of the local Chinese community when I introduced the 1Malaysia plan, which covers the needs of all regardless of colour, ethnicity and culture,” he added.

Ong said in his speech that the dinner was not just to celebrate the appointment of Najib as Prime Minister but to also show that the Chinese community would always be with the Government and his leadership as it strives to overcome the current economic problems.

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