ARTICLE 1 Title Author Source : MBMMBI: 10,000 Teachers to be Specially Trained This Year : Berita Nasional Malaysia (Bernama)

: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/56632

KUALA LUMPUR, 25 APRIL, 2011: The Education Ministry targets to train 10,000 English language teachers this year to raise their competency in teaching the subject. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the move was in line with the implementation of the "Upholding the Malay Language and Strengthening Command of English" (MBMMBI) policy for Year One primary school pupils starting from next year. "Although the 'Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English' (PPSMI) has been abolished, the government is undertaking various efforts and and strategies to raise proficiency in English. "Almost 12,000 teachers teaching English had attended the special training programme held last year, and this year the ministry targets another 10,000 teachers to undergo the same programme," he said in reply to Senator Ng Fook Heng at the Dewan Negara sitting today. Ng wanted to know the measures to be taken by the government to improve English proficiency of primary and secondary school students, considering that PPSMI would be abolished for Year One pupils from next year. MBMMBI was introduced to replace PPSMI from 2012, after if was found that the policy failed to achieve its objective of raising students' proficiency in English, which have affected their performance in the two subjects, especially among rural students. Muhyiddin who is also Education Minister, said besides setting up the MBMMBI Implementation Main Committee which was chaired by him, the ministry targeted to hire 600 retired English language teachers on a contract basis from this year until 2013. He said until March this year, 168 of such teachers had taken up the offer, while the government had also brought in 375 English native speakers from abroad to improve the professionalism of English language lecturers and teachers, with 360 of these experts appointed as mentors for the English language teachers at 1,800 primary schools. Muhyiddin said the capacity of the computers rooms in schools had also been raised to also serve as English language labs, with 20 primary schools chosen as the pioneer group last year and another 700 schools targeted for this year.

He said the government had also allocated RM6 million to supply additional reading material in English for primary schools' resource centres this year. The deputy prime minister also said that to minimise the effects of the change of policy, the government had introduced the "soft landing" approach, whereby the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics could be done in two languages, depending on the capability of the teachers and pupils. "This means that the examination papers will be prepared in the two languages and it is up to the students to answer the questions in the language they can easily understand." He said to help the teachers and pupils adapt to the change, the process would be done in stages until the full implementation of MBMMBI in 2015 which would also see the last cohort of the PPSMI programme.

- Bernama