Our founding father and the country’s first prime minister, the Tunku, strongly advocated the use of English as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics in all schools and institutions of higher learning so that our children can access the rich source of technical and scientific knowledge recorded in English.

However, following the unpleasant events of May 13, 1969, the use of Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction in all schools was fast tracked, effective January 1970.

That major change was made without first testing its efficacy on a pilot basis, using the 3M (messing, meddling and modeling) method for a period of (say) one year to identify and correct the weakness, tinker and fine tune the system and evolve a proven model and then implement it in all the schools.

Consequently, the system has become exam-centric and the children are ‘coached to test’ and not taught. That method of ‘education’ has produced one generation of youths who are bereft of their own civilisation and ignorant of their own culture. They are very weak in English and that has permanently shut the window to the outside world.

The above prompted Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his cabinet to heed the Tunku’s advice, effective January 2003. The Tun realised that in today’s world of communication and information, without English, children cannot access every field of knowledge available to him or her. Thus, Tun must be credited with making that historic and futuristic decision.

The current complaint by some NGOs and academicians (the ‘Nayers’) that the children in rural schools are weak in science and mathematics taught in English is nothing new. It is a perennial problem - as old as post-second world war. .

Nonetheless, our first generation political leaders and civil servants who hailed from the rural environment with primitive conditions for learning excelled in the English medium schools and graduated from the portals of British universities. Why can’t the subsequent generations excel, given the vastly improved facilities for learning?

So, the ‘Nayers’ should address the right questions to get the correct answers prior to sentencing. Appended below are my views which are rooted in my experience teaching science in a semi- rural school in the late fifties and sixties and my observations as a parent. They are:

1. The pupils might be under a mistaken notion that the state is obliged to give them education like a hand out in pursuance of a policy? No state in the world can give education to everyone. Instead, it must be inwardly appropriated by each child through personal participation and transformation.

So, the children must learn and the teachers must teach and not ‘coach to test’, a facade for training. Animals can be trained; only human beings can be educated. Scoring straight ‘As’ is neither education nor its purpose. Therefore, parents, politicians and teachers must understand the concept and purpose of education.

2. Are the pupils imbued with the indomitable spirit to defeat defeatism and transform themselves into tribe-less warriors asking, ‘What can I do for the country?’ and not ‘What can the country do for me?’. Each child must say, ‘Yes, I can’. Pandering is not a substitute for perseverance and creativity.

3. Are the teachers appropriately qualified with the relevant skills and experience to teach science and mathematics in English? Learning science and mathematics in any language requires logical thinking. Hence, the teachers must interact with the children in the manner of a scientist to promote creativity.

However, if the teachers are themselves weak in the said subjects or lack the teaching skills or are not proficient in English, can they ignite the minds of the pupils? The answer is obvious. The medium is only as good as the teachers who use it.

4. Do all the schools have appropriately equipped laboratories for teaching science, chemistry and physics? Science is a practical subject. Children understand abstract concepts better by observing experiments demonstrated by the teacher or by doing the experiment themselves. During the experiment they study, observe, measure, assess and analyse and report the results.

5. Do all the schools have a well-stocked library to inculcate the reading habit from young? A good library is the soul of education. Children should know the art of reading and know what is worth reading.

Public amenities like libraries and playing fields in some local areas are being privatised by the local authorities in the name of ‘development’ and ‘progress’. The conversion is done with the blessings of or at the insistence of the state YBs whose only qualification is that they are elected and nothing else whatsoever.

In some areas, the amenities are converted into an economic wasteland due to an oversupply of commercial properties.

6. Are the teachers the best minds in the country? Teaching is a mission to culture the intellect of the students, to shape and mould their character, to heighten their awareness, to clarify their vision and purify their hearts,

On average, children spend about 25,000 hours of their most productive hours for learning between the ages of 4 to 17 in the school campus. Hence, the environment in the school must be conducive for learning and the schools should be properly ordered to impart value-based education.

7. Today, many school leavers or ‘leftovers’ take to teaching as the last resort as a vocation. It is therefore, doubtful whether all the applicants have the right attitude and dedication. Hence, there are several square pegs in round holes in the system, Squaring the holes is possible at substantial cost, provided the incumbents are re-trainable. Such an ambience frustrates and demoralises the child as his/her thirst for knowledge is not quenched.

8. Are teachers with talent and probity promoted as headmasters or principals? Lapses in governance due to the apathy and tidak apa attitude of some headmasters or principals with economy of merit and political patronage erodes the confidence of the teachers and the pupils.

9. Overbearing parents deprive the child of the space to think, to dream, to be creative and to be innovative. Their life is highly regulated. The child’s mind is screened with resentment for the teachers

10. Parents’ obsession with straight ‘As’ has literally placed the child in a ‘pressure cooker’ without a safety valve. The child is subjected to five different types of pressure: parental pressure, peer pressure, uncertainty pressure, failure pressure, and future pressure.

Thus, they have lost their smiles on their faces and schooling has become a regimented painful experience. The child’s mind is screened with prejudice for learning and dreads going to school.

11. Many children in urban areas are brought up in an environment of want and waste from young. ‘Black’ money motivates the families to live beyond their means. So innocent minds are pickled from young in a toxic and corrosive mixture of greed, selfishness, extravagance and disobedience to the law. That desiccates their hearts and shrivels their intellect.

Nothing good will ever sprout in such minds and they are therefore vulnerable to the lure of unhealthy activities.

By conduct, the parents have downgraded and devalued noble Asian values like hard work, thrift, honesty, the savings habit and righteousness all crucial elements which give the people the national integrity and identity – ‘who we are’.

In a fast-tracked border-less business environment, the window of opportunity is small and short. Missed opportunities cannot be recalled. So our leaders in power must be market-centric, multi -lingual and multi-disciplined with a hawk’s eye for opportunities and have the ability to decide and/or handle problems or crisis on a real time basis without reference to an operating manual. Real progress and prosperity can only come from the market place. Malaysia is a trading country.

Thus, children must be thrown into the main stream of life from young so that they develop the confidence and the skills to compete with their peers on merit. However, if they are continually protected by policy, they might become severely handicapped and incapable of competing on a level playing field. Time and tide waits for no man.

The ‘Nayers’ are living in an era where man has transcended the limits of sound and space, and yet, their mindset still lurks in the pre-Merdeka period where the conditions for learning in the rural areas were primitive.

They should therefore emerge from their cocoons and sieve all the facts to ascertain the truth and require the government to reform and transform the education system to be the best in the region in terms of curriculum, assessment and teachers, the three elements of quality education.

Posturing Malaysia as the centre for universal ‘education tourism’ would help to improve not only its GDP but also its ‘Gross Domestic Happiness’. The new system will also help the children to retain the smiles on the faces.

However, should the ‘Nayers’ declare finality and infallibility to their decision to revert to the pre-1970 system, and the government compromises wisdom and reason for votes and impoverishes the livelihood of another generation of youths, that would be a violation of human rights. Change without due process, is like shooting the football referee for blowing the whistle too often

We have now passed the mid-way to the year 2020 and it might not be prudent to change horses in mid-stream Instead, we must be laser-focused to bring reality to the aims and aspirations of Vision 2020 and stay competitive in the global market place by continually innovating in ever shorter cycles.