Sabah Umno Youth chief Abdul Aziz Julkarnain said millions in funds had been wasted to bring about the drastic change in 2003 and still PPSMI failed to meet its objectives.
“A study done by the Co-curriculum Development Centre and School Heads in 2005 showed that students in urban areas performed much better than those in the rural areas during the implementation of PPSMI in 2003.
“This resulted in the widening of the gap between the performance of rural and urban students, and led to opposition to the PPSMI, causing it to be stopped in 2010,” he said.
Aziz said the imbalance will have a great impact on the students when they reach working age as those from rural areas, lacking access to higher education, would be at a disadvantage when looking for good jobs.
“The PPSMI programme is a pro-urban policy. If implemented, it could serve as punishment for students in rural areas.
“In the long run, this will lead to socio-economic imbalance. The most hard-hit will be the Bumiputeras, who mostly came from the rural areas.”
Aziz said the “Bahasa Malaysia First, Strengthen English Policy”, introduced after the PPSMI, in 2011 was enough to deal with the problem of lack of proficiency in English.
He said the government must first eliminate the gap between the urban and rural areas before the country could achieve progress.
Aziz proposed the education ministry drop the plans for PPSMI and spend the funds on more science boarding schools in the rural areas in Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu to close the rural-urban education gap.
As proficiency in English was crucial for better learning of science and technology, he said extra time should be allocated for English language lessons. He called for the introduction of a new “English for Maths and Science” syllabus in schools nationwide as opposed to implementing the drastic process involving the PPSMI.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is acting education minister, had proposed on Friday that English would be used as the medium of instruction for teaching of Science and Mathematics, in order to improve proficiency in the language.
The matter has yet to be decided by the federal Cabinet, according to statements by several ministers today.