Oliver Ward, who is a senior writer for Asean Today and focuses on foreign policy and politics in Southeast Asia, said the government was limiting future growth by choosing to avoid English as the medium of instruction.
“It also robs young Malaysians of a brighter and more unified future with improved international job prospects.
“Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak owes it to the next generation to ignore the ill-thought out and unfounded beliefs of MPs like Hasan Arifan,” he said in a commentary on Asean Today.
Ward was referring to Rompin MP Hasan Arifin, who said in the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 23 that the majority of countries that adopted an English-medium education system were not successful.
Hasan added that Singapore did not count as it was a city-state, “not a country”.
However, Ward hailed the success of Singapore, which he said had been able to establish itself as an attractive investment destination through its adoption of the English language.
“City-state or country, the fact is the use of English in Singapore’s education system has set them ahead of Malaysia.
“A workforce educated in English became masters at international commerce. Today the tiny island of Singapore is the 14th largest trading nation. Singaporean workers are sought-after abroad,” he said.
According to the latest Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index, Malaysia ranks 13th out of 80 countries in terms of English language proficiency among non-native speakers.
Singapore was ranked 5th, under the “very high” category with a score of 66.03, while Malaysia was ranked under the “high” category with a score of 61.07.
The average score was 53.2%.
EF senior director of research Minh Tran said the success of Singapore, which made it into the top five for the first time, was due to its improved education system.
“In these countries, high standards for every student are the norm, and there is a relatively small difference in performance between rich and poor students. Of these four countries, however, only Singapore teaches English to a high level,” the EF report said.
Ward said Malaysia had lately committed a higher funding in education than Singapore, which should ensure better results from the Malaysian system.
He also highlighted the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute survey last month, which showed that the majority of respondents supported the move to bring back English-medium schools.
Under the current school system, he said, division was fostered along ethnic lines.
“The student population in national primary schools is 97% Bumiputera. In Chinese schools, 99.9% of the students are ethnically Chinese. In Tamil schools, the student population is 100% Indian. These schools all use their respective languages as the medium of instruction.
“By restoring English-medium schools, Najib would not only create a workforce with a strong command of English, he would also bring Malaysians together.
“All races and economic classes could study together, as they did in the 50s and 60s,” he said.
Malaysia number 13 on world English language proficiency index