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Establish English Medium Schools

By:

Jas/G25 Malaysia

Affiliations:

G25 Malaysia

Policy Code:

3f Education

Problem Statement:

Establish English medium schools, at the very least, to supply our schools with competent English teachers before it is too late. Equally significant is to address the country’s trade and graduate competitiveness outlined as follows:
1. Rising unemployment of new graduates due to low English proficiency as a factor.
2. Malaysia’s external trade is bigger than its GDP. We are dependent on trade to drive the economy. English is the lingua franca of commerce, business, knowledge, academia, science and technology.
3. 42% of university graduates have MUET proficiency Band 1&2, equivalent to the expected proficiency level of primary school students (CEFR A2). 4. > than 50% form 5 students do not meet the required proficiency standards (CEFR B1).
5. After 11 years of schooling, 60% of form 5 have not progressed beyond primary school proficiency. 6. International research indicates that Malaysia’s 15-20% instructional time in English language may be insufficient for students to build operational proficiency.
7. The MEB targets 70% of the candidates for the Cambridge English 1119 (part of SPM English component) receives credit grade by 2025. In 2010, only 23% Malays, 42% Chinese and 35% Indians receive credit.

Value(s) and Belief(s):

EMS is free from influences of language and political groups. No party owns it. Establish English medium schools (EMS) to become one of the options of public funded schools to develop students into dynamic, globally conscious citizens and with the values imbibed produce cultured, multi-faceted, true Malaysians.

Proposal of Solution:

Steps undertaken to ensure processes are in line with establishing EMS:

a) Plan and ramp up Dual Language programme schools, currently 1,380 DLP schools. By 2023, there should be 5,000 DLP schools. These schools will lead the path towards converting them into EMS
b) Allow for Sabah and Sarawak to proceed with EMS, and other receptive states to do so as per the support from their ruling houses, ie Johor, Perak
c) Ramp up English language programmes and teacher training to ensure English becomes a must pass subject in SPM by 2023. Training can be done via online sessions and sources.
d) Recruit competent English-speaking graduates from other non-teaching background to be trained as teachers, i.e., using the Teach For Malaysia teacher training method.
e) Allow part time private sector employees with high English competency to be part time teachers. f) Teachers should be exempted from paying tax to spur white collar workers to get into teaching. Raise the teaching standard and salary via teacher licensing.

Translation

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Nilai-nilai dan Kepercayaan:

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