Science and Maths in English

Since few weeks ago so many people keep discussing about teaching science and maths BACK in Malay. I wonder those who keep discussing the matter, did they send they children to sekolah kebangsaan (national school), local public universities?? I can imagine the answer is 80%++ NO...

Look back at my own education background, I'm from a small town and my parents do not speak English. I was brought up in 'Cintailah Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu' era. During primary and high school, most of my schoolmates were Malay. We spoke very least English. My first degree was from UKM, which also used very very least English. So, most of my long term memories were in Malay..When did I think Malay language is just not enough to survive in global world?? My first job was in a Singaporean-owned electronic company in JB. Imagine all the directors were Singaporean Chinese that didn't even know Malay language. That was the first time I found difficulty to express my idea. All my memories were in Malay..When I joined Sirim Bhd, I translated part of the theories to English because most of my colleagues were overseas educated.. It was a hard work! When I did my postgrad degree, I made sure I translated as much as possible technical vocabs to English. I realized it was not that easy to learn something new when we are aging :-))

In order for us to be a global player I always believe we need to master the global language. When I spoke to final year students last year, I was surprised to see their English level. Things are getting better nowadays since most of the students were taught in English since day 1 at school-although only maths and science. If we choose to back to sq 1, then we are actually producing noncompetitive graduates. Why do you think science and engineering grads much easier to get a job compared to arts grads?? Because they are not given a chance but to use English..End of the day, not only their technical memory in English, but their communication skill also improved significantly-although not perfect.. At least they can access most books, journals, internet resources easily...

In order for the country to reduce unemployment rates we must somehow 'export' our graduates to work overseas. We keep producing thousands graduates each year, so what? Even now we can see lots of clerks, technicians, etc with diploma or bachelor degree. .something need to be done, definitely NO TURNING BACK when comes to language...