WHEN Nor Azman Amat Kalam first learnt of the government’s initiative to get schoolchildren to master English last year, he, like many other parents in rural Beranang, Selangor, was sceptical, even hostile to the idea.

The parents could still recall how divisive the last English policy was and how hard it was for their children to adapt to the government’s attempt to teach maths and science in English, or PPSMI,
as the moribund policy is known.