PETALING JAYA: Teachers and Malay advocacy groups are up in arms over the government’s plan to bring back the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI), a pet policy of Dr Mahathir Mohamad to improve students’ command of English which was dropped in 2012 amid strong protest.

The National Union of The Teaching Profession (NUTP), the country’s largest teachers’ union, insisted that PPSMI is not the remedy to students’ lack of proficiency in the English language.

NUTP president Amiruddin Awang said the government should instead address concerns about the quality of teachers and undertake a review of the English subject syllabus.

There has been intense speculation that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is bent on reintroducing PPSMI, especially as its staunchest proponent is none other than the prime minister.

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Kaytee Note:

I agree with NUTP that the students' proficiency in English can't be achieved through teaching of the language in Science and Mathematics.

Eg. Solve this and that, QED, etc - that's the quantum of English to be taught

A language (not just English) is best taught when the students have lots of personal interaction in that lingo, like in Civics, History, Literature, Culture, etc where there exist opportunities for the class interaction to be agile, dynamic and frequent.

Mahathir is keen on the PPSMI because apart from having a sinister objective to his policy, he thinks he cannot be wrong, like Car No 3, wakakaka.