Gerakan said today that primary schools should not switch to English for the teaching of Science and Mathematics and should instead take other steps to improve the command of the language among students.

The party is the first of the five Chinese-based component parties in Barisan Nasional to state an official stand on the controversial language switch, after a two-hour central committee meeting this morning at the Gerakan headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik said studies have shown that a student must first establish a basic command in mother-tongue and use it to learn basic concepts before learning Science and Maths in a second language at a later stage.

Should the language switch be implemented now, there will be "serious problems" for all the primary schools, he said.

"Most students, except for the bright ones and those from urban upper middle class, will not learn the two subjects effectively because English does not provide the continuity of learning from mother-tongue in the home environment.

"Those affected will be children of lower-middle class of various races from rural areas, new villages, estates, and poorer areas in urban centres," said Lim in a statement.

No effective communication

He said a language switch now will also mean that the generations to come will not be able to use their community language for arithmetic operations, logical reasoning, and to relate to their living environment.

"They will not be able to communicate effectively in a complete way in their own mother tongue. Neither will they learn English effectively," he said.

Lim, who is also the Primary Industries Minister, pointed out the possible problems with the language switch due to lack of time such as "shortage of competent teachers, suitable textbooks, teaching materials, and computer-aided instruction programme".

He said concrete steps must be taken to improve the teaching of English as a second language instead.

The party proposed that terminologies in Science and Maths be introduced from Standard Four "with some bilingual texts for Standard Five and Six (for the two subjects), complemented by passages related to Science and Maths in the English Language subject".

Dong Zong welcomes stand

Meanwhile, Bock Tai Hee, chief executive officer of Dong Zong or United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia, welcomed Gerakan's stand on the language switch though "the party had made different and confusing statements before this".

Early this week, Gerakan chief Lim had called the Chinese education groups that oppose the language switch "chauvinists" while his deputy Kerk Choo Ting had earlier said it would be necessary for "all primary schools to accept it together".

Bock urged the party to stay firm on its stand and to express its view to the government as soon as possible.

He said Gerakan's statement had shown that it was wrong to single out Dong Zong, together with its close affiliate Jiao Zong or United Chinese School Teachers' Association of Malaysia, as the sole opponent to the proposal.

"The government must listen to all political parties and organisations that are against the language switch and take their views seriously," he said.

Unanimous decision

When contacted, Gerakan vice-president Dr S Vijayaratnam said the party has yet to decide the next course of action following its stand today.

"We can't say whether we will bring it to the Cabinet or not because we will need to talk to the other Chinese-based parties and work out on something first," he said.

He added at the meeting earlier, the party's central committee members had agreed unanimously with the proposal to maintain mother-tongue for the teaching of Science and Maths in primary school.

Since announcing the move to teach Science and Maths in English at Standard One and Form One last month, the Education Ministry had met with objections from various education groups regarding the implementation in primary schools.

As a result of this, Education Minister Musa Mohamed said the component parties in the ruling coalition will be consulted before a final decision regarding the vernacular schools is made.

But the minister had said this week that the implementation will proceed on schedule, with or without consent from the parties.

Yesterday, leaders of MCA, Gerakan, Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) met to discuss the issue but failed to reach a consensus.