MELAKA: The Education Ministry will hire 370 English language experts from abroad starting next year to monitor teaching of the language in Malaysian schools.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the recruitment was in line with the implementation of the government’s policy of upholding the Malay language and strengthening use of the English language (MBMMBI) for Year One pupils from next year.
“They (the experts) will see how our teachers teach their pupils English,” he said at a Titipan Naluri dialogue programme with trainees of the Melaka, Johor and Negeri Sembilan teacher training institutes, at the Melaka Women’s Teacher Training Institute, here, yesterday.
The MBMMBI was introduced to replace the policy of teaching of science and mathematics in the English language (PPSMI), which will be abolished in 2012 after discovering that the policy failed to achieve the objective of improving students’ proficiency in English while it (policy) has also affected the performance of students, especially in the rural areas, in the two subjects.
Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the government had no worries about upholding the status of the Malay language as most of the serving teachers were already trained in the language.
“The challenge for us now is how to strengthen usage of the English language.
That is why we need our teachers to be exposed again through courses during the holidays so as to be more proficient in the language.” He said the English proficiency of trainees at the teacher training institutes would also be improved so that they would not face problems when they start teaching in schools. — Bernama