Siti Norhayati, 37, said the education ministry-approved textbook for the subject of Teknologi Maklumat Dan Komunikasi (TMK) used language that was not only “alien” to refer to computer software and hardware, but also “comical”.
“Can you guess what a ‘kayu ria’ is?” she asked, and pointed to a picture of a joystick.
“If this is what is being taught to our children in schools, it’s a joke.”
She listed a few more computer terms translated into Bahasa Malaysia.
“We all have heard of ‘tetikus’ and ‘kekunci’,” she said, referring to the Malay translation for mouse and keyboard, “but how about ‘mendefregmentasi storan luaran’?” asked the former banker.
Checks show that the phrase refers to “defragmenting”, once a routine maintenance feature of the Windows operating system.
“First of all, the phrase sounds like anything but the national language. Secondly, why do we even bother to learn about the obsolete practice of defragmenting the hard drive? I can understand if it is part of the Sejarah subject.”
She said she had no choice but to tell her daughter to memorise the terminology in TMK for the year-end examination, adding that many parents she spoke to also did the same.
“They have no idea what they are memorising as nowhere do we find these terms being used other than in the minds of the guardians of our national language who translated them.”
Other translated computer terms include:
Cakera liut – floppy disk
Pemacu kilat – flash drive
Cakera optik – compact disc
Cakera keras – hard drive
Fon kepala – head phone
“Why can’t we just call a disk, a disk?” asked Siti.
A module on the same subject prepared by the education ministry’s Curriculum Development Division revealed more bizarre words such as “peranti penuding” for a pointing device and “pencetak pancutan dakwat” which refers to an ink jet printer.
Siti said many parents like her were helpless and had resigned themselves to the fact that their children should just memorise the terms so they can pass their exam.
Her complaint brought to mind the call for the use of English for technical subjects amid a series of language policies in national schools going back and forth throughout the years.
In 2001, Mathematics and Science began to be taught in English, but the policy changed in 2012 when the subject medium reverted to Bahasa Malaysia.
In 2016, the government embarked on the Dual Language Programme, giving schools the option to teach technical subjects such as Science, Mathematics and TMK in either English or Bahasa Malaysia.
The move drew strong protest from Malay groups who accused the authorities of undermining the national language.
Siti admitted that she had not paid attention to the controversy, but now said she understood the need for the teaching of English after seeing “meaningless jargons being forced into our heads”.
Meanwhile, a pop quiz: what is “Aplikasi Hamparan Elektronik”?