Do our graduates have sufficient language proficiency?

Updated 7 years ago · Published on 24 May 2019 7:00AM · 5 Comments

EDUCATION Minister Maszlee Malik’s remarks on the Mandarin language requirement by employers as justification for matriculation quotas raises a deeper question: do our graduates have sufficient language proficiency?

Certainly not English, the global language for business. Much has been said and reported about the poor command of English among our local graduates. In fact, the Malaysian Employers Federation in its 2016 survey reported that 90% of its respondents indicated that local graduates “need to improve their English proficiency”.

Mandarin is definitely out of the question. Otherwise, we would not have politicians up in arms against employers seeking “Mandarin speakers”. Never mind the fact that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world and China is set to become the world’s largest economy. 

What about Bahasa Malaysia, our national language? Unless one is employed in or dealing with government sectors, Bahasa Malaysia is not commonly used for official communication purposes in the private sector, especially among multinational companies. How many times do you hear working Malaysians say “my BM sudah karat”?

Our education minister must recognise that language is one of the most important job skills today. Across economies, bilingual and multilingual talents are growing prerequisites and advantages as businesses go international. 

While mastering another language takes times, our minister must ask why our students’ grasp of English is so stubbornly poor, despite spending 11 years studying it in school? Should Mandarin be given more emphasis given its growing importance in today’s business environment? How do we address the weak command of Bahasa Malaysia among students from vernacular schools? What can be done better to help our graduates with substandard language skills in preparation for a more globalised economy?

The deterioration of language competency among Malaysian graduates reflects the overall decline of our education system. Eventually, this will erode the competitiveness of the country’s talent pool. While our government continues to defend the matriculation quota, does it really address the underlying issue of the education system we have today? – May 24, 2019.

* Eric Lai reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.

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Comments

  • Well written

    Posted 7 years ago by Lan Lan · Reply

  • Was our education mess up a delibrate thing? In 1956 in the Razak Education Report it was stated that BM and English were compulsory subjects in all government schools. For BM we imported thousands of teachers from Indonesia. BM went through a face lift with so many changes. The only Jawi newspaper in Malaya had to close shop. For English, Malaya had a few thousand highly trained teachers from Kirkby, & Brinsford Lodge, England. The myth that Malays are not good in English was started during 1956 when suddenly the number of Malays going to Kirkby and Brinsford was reduced drastically. For Kirkby until 1957, (8 batches) about 295/905 (about 32%) were Malays. The Malays number for the 4 batches after Razak report was 100/463 or about 21%. Common sense will tell that after 1957 more Malays would be included in the administration. Kirkby had two batches of teacher trainers selected from teachers already in service. The number of Malays selected were less than even the Indians. WHY.

    Posted 7 years ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply

    • English was abolished as a medium of teaching in Universities during the late '70s. Also abolished was the "General Degree" which students needed to pass with distinction before being allowed to go for honours (NOT straight through). Mahathir was Education Minister during that period.

      Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply

  • Within 10 years, US, China and India (in no particular order) will be the top three economies of the world. Will Malaysia encourage its citizens to learn English, Mandarin and even Hindi (to a lesser extent as India also uses English) to compete with the world?

    If so, we should start NOW or we will be left a long way behind !!!

    (Even Indonesian badminton players can conduct interviews in English which were unheard of a few years back.)

    Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply

  • Yes, that is why most of the books in our university libraries are clean and untouched for years. Malaysia paid to train teachers in England and now they have migrated and are serving in other countries. Why are we always the losers?

    Posted 7 years ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply