Idris with pupils during his visit to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) Ladang Shanghai in Mambau. On the left is the programme mentor, William Carver while standing at second right is the state education director Datuk Khalsom Khalid. — Bernama photo
SEREMBAN: The government is committed in strengthening the English language proficiency among students and teachers, said Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
He said the government was serious about ensuring that English language could be fully used and its usage being enhanced in schools.
“I believe in two or three years we can see tremendous improvement in English language usage among students from all across the country,” he said after visiting Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) Ladang Shanghai, Mambau, here yesterday.
In addition to various programmes to increase English proficiency among students, he said the government had also implemented programmes to improve English proficiency among teachers.
“We have a programme to train 22,000 teachers so that they can reach level C1 and C2 of the Cambridge Placement Test. For students, we have a programmes such as native speakers who use out-of-the-box concept that does not merely focus on text books,” he said.
He said the native speaker programmes had been conducted in 1,800 schools nationwide since 2011, involving 360 native speakers from United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
“The programmes are implemented in schools nationwide, including urban, rural, and SRJK (Chinese) schools.
“The project seems to run well with the achievement of the English language in Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) in those schools improving to 91.3 per cent last year from 65.4 percent in 2013,” he said.
Idris said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was currently conducting a study on the programme to verify the results and findings of its effectiveness in terms of its impact on teachers and students. — Bernama