Is it the teachers, BM or uninterested students?

Muhyiddin Yassin is “bewildered” as to why graduates still have a poor command of the English language despite years learning it in school.

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy prime minister cum education minister Muhyiddin Yassin has expressed his complete bewilderment as to why fresh graduates still struggle to speak the English language with any degree of ease.

Speaking at a dialogue on the Malaysia Education Blueprint on higher education today, Muhyiddin asked if the quality of teachers was to blame or the students themselves who were uninterested in the subject.

He even considered the widespread use of Bahasa Malaysia are a contributory factor for the poor grasp of English despite students being exposed to the language since pre-school.

“But I do not think we can blame Bahasa Melayu as the reason why the standard of English in this country is bad,” he said.

Stressing that “Something is not right”, Muhyiddin added that even the duration of time spent in school learning written and spoken English was considerable.

He said, “It cannot be that the number of hours is insufficient since students spend between 18 to 19 years learning the language.

“What is the use of learning a language if you cannot communicate with it?” he asked.

In a genuine effort to arrest the decline of the English language, Putrajaya has made it mandatory for students to pass English in the SPM examinations from 2016, as part of its Education Development Master Plan 2013-2025.

Muhyiddin also said the education ministry had considered implementing a language immersion programme, like the one in Perth, Australia, for those in dire need of help in speaking and writing English.

Bemoaning the fact that Malaysia did not have enough teachers fluent in the language to participate in this programme, Muhyiddin also said there were other logistical reasons as to why the programme could not be implemented that easily.

He explained, “If our schools are conducted in a single session, which is something I hope for one day, we can then extend the schooling hours to include more English programmes.”

He said that currently with so many factors working against the system, it was quite impossible to implement an 8am-4pm single-session schooling system where more focus could be placed on using the English language as an effective communications tool.