KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — Students should take the initiative to brush up on their English instead of relying solely on their teachers, Deputy Minister for Higher Education Mary Yap said today.
Responding to Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran’s question in Parliament, Yap said the government has already done its best to help university students through the inclusion of relevant language programmes in their courses.
“Each university has their own English programme in its curriculum. But we also encourage students to study English on their own.
“Cannot depend on several tutorials alone (sic). Students must be responsible and go the extra mile to learn English,” she said in her reply during Question Time.
Kulasegaran had earlier asked the Higher Education Ministry if it could maintain good English standards in the country, following reported examples of the language being mangled.
He said a recent example of poor English usage was seen in a message on an electronic billboard during the recent Asean Summit hosted by Malaysia over the weekend, which read: “Welcome to the President of USA Barack Obama”.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said recently that Malaysian graduates often lose out in the job market as they lack confidence due to their poor command of the English language.
The Umno president said that despite scoring well in their examinations, Malaysian graduates still struggled to secure jobs because they fail to persuade employers that they possess the qualities sought after in the corporate sector.
Parent groups have been lobbying the government to reintroduce the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English, a policy introduced in 2003 but discontinued seven years later.
English-language lobbyist such as the Parents Action Group for Education continue to push for the return of — or at least the option for parents to choose — the discontinued policy that they contend was needed to improve the mastery of English as well as technical subjects.
