PPSMI - I told you so

I suggested in my earlier posting that two conditions must be present for an effectively efficient and efficiently effective transfer of knowledge

1. Teacher and Learner share the common language 
2. The Knowledge has been effectively captured (originally or translated) in that common language to facilitate teaching and learning.

Apparently, the Ministry of education had done their homework and to a certain extend concur with my views. They discovered that the student performance in the two subjects (Science & Mathematics) actual decreased when PPSMI was implemented. They also discovered that "...only 5% of primary schools nationwide taught the two subjects fully in English, while less than 9% learned them in English at secondary school level." I could breath easy now that the Ministry acknowledged that "...student's improvement in understanding scientific and mathematical concepts is closely linked to the language of communication that he or she can easily understand."  Exactly my point!!

I know there are people out there that would say "ah ha! It was not implemented fully. That's the reason it has not been successful."  My response is: if it had been implemented fully, we will see that the decline would have been more drastic. Thanks to our teachers that in the spirit of wanting the children to learn, had accommodated with bi-lingual class. Yes, some would say that it's violation of "direct" order to teach the two subjects in English. But the teachers knew that the issue was not the two subjects cannot be taught in other than English BUT the issue was English Language proficiency. If the English teachers could, they would have teach the subject in BM (pretty much the same way a BM teacher had taught the subject in English due to the the language her students were comfortable with were English - this happened way back several years in an Urban Secondary school)

My suggestion to those who still want to insist on PPSMI to continue....

1. Drop the emotion, be more objective.
2. Examine your motives.