MATHEMATICS and English will be taught in English at 30% of Sarawak’s 1,265 primary schools starting next year.

State Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Michael Manyin told the state assembly today that implementation will be done in stages.

He later told the media that none of the state’s 222 Chinese schools will be involved.

Manyin said Chinese schools’ management boards requested exemption from the policy, arguing that “the teaching of Maths and Science in Mandarin is superior to English”.

The state government will not pressure Chinese schools on the matter, he said.

State Housing and Local Government Minister Sim Hui Kian said Chinese schools are granted exclusion as it can be “doubly hard” for pupils to learn “very technical” subjects in another language.

“It will be doubly hard for them. You don’t know the language, furthermore, you have to learn very technical things.”

Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik, during a meeting with Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg in Kuching on April 24, offered Sarawak to be the first state to fully implement the teaching of Maths and Science in English.

Manyin told the state assembly that Sarawak has to tackle numerous challenges before the policy can be realised, including training teachers, deciding on the assessment and examination format to be used, and issues related to the production of resource materials.

He said his ministry is engaging with the state Education Department on the number of teachers who require training, as well as the training module and necessary resources.

The ministry will also seek talks with institutions of higher learning, like University of Malaysia Sarawak and Universiti Teknologi Mara, and teacher-training colleges, he said.

He added that Sarawak has spent RM170,000 on training Maths and Science teachers since last year. – May 8, 2019.