P Kamalanathan
KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry has never neglected the importance of mastering the English language among students and teachers, but is constantly striving to improve usage of the language, said Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan.
He said theministry’s effortscould be seen through the Empowering Bahasa Melayu and Strengthening the English Language (MBMMBI) policy, which among others aimed at strengthening of English language profi ciency.
“Not only the ministry, the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) during the tabling of the 11th Malaysia Plan and Budget 2016, had specifically stated on how to improve mastery of English.
“The ministry is also in the process of sending teachers to get specific training in English language usage,” he said when replying to a supplementary question from M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) in the Dewan Rakyat here yesterday.
Kulasegaran had wanted to know the government’s efforts to strengthen fl uency in English among teachers.
Kamalanathan also said that more than 20,000 teachers were undergoing an English language usage course, which is currently in phase B1 and B2 of the Cambridge Proficiency Test and would be completed by the end of next year.— Bernama