THE CURRENT controversy over making English a cumpulsory subject in the SPM or form five examinations is as contentious as forcing students to learn mathematics and science in English overnight several years ago. It’s a mindless exercise without direction like a dog chasing its own tail.

As usual, it is the students who would be made to pay the price for this folly after the dust has settled. But in the long run, the whole country suffers when the standard of any language deteriorates to unaccpetable levels.

Make no mistakes about it. English is the world langauge even though Chinese is by far the most widely spoken language in the world. However, following China’s modernisation programme, the Chinese there embraced the learning and teaching of the English language wholeheartedly with or without official sanction or planning.

By just taking CCTV - its international quality TV broadcast - as an indicator, leads on to wonder where do all these competent native speakers of a foreign tongue come from in such a short time?

The same as in the Arab speaking world when we look at the Al Jazeera. How can an Arab TV station use English to go international so competently and in such a short time?

When it comes to the teaching of any language in our country, why must it always become a political hot potato? Did we miss something? Or are we plain mindless? Must we always babble instead of speaking plainly and coherently?

Do we know that according to one ethno-lingusitic survey, in Malaysia there are 182 people groups as defined by their own languages or dialects?

Of these 47 are in spoken in Sarawak. Of these, one –Seru in Kabong in the second division – is now extinct. That leaves Sarawak with 46 living languages.

Others are similarly threatened. The are only 70 people left who can speak Sian in Belaga and another 120 who can speak Ukit in Baleh, both in Belaga in the seventh division of Sarawak.

Even the Kenyah language, which is the spoken language of about 100,000 Orang Ulu in Sarawak, is feared to become extinct if no efforts are made to preserve it.

This concern was raised recently by the Baram Member of Parliament Jacob Dungau Sagan, who said the language was increasingly being threatened by assimilation and the wide use of more dominant languages like Malay and English, especially among young Kenyahs, one of the ethnic groups of Sarawak's Orang Ulu community.

Now put this in context. Make English compulsory for SPM and when a student fails the language he or she fails to get a cetificate of education. He or she is set for failure in life as without a SPM, the window of opportunity slams shut in the face.

Previously, a credit pass in Malay was needed to get a certificate. Without it, you can’t get a job in the government or anywhere for that matter. My cousin was one such victim once upon a time. She wanted to do nursing but failed in Malay so no certificate for her even though she passed all other subjects. Eventually she ended up illegally as a maid in the U.S. before finally gaining American citizenship.

I too failed to get a credit for Malay so I did not get my Malaysian Certificate of Education. But I got a credit for English which was compulsory to get my Cambridge School Certificate. I was fortunate to be in the so called transition period where insanity in education has not fully set in yet.

Imagine, the injustice to the Bumiputras in Sabah and Sarawak and my cousin and everybody else just because we want to make English or Malay a compulsory subject.

It was equally mindless to make the teaching of science and mathematics in English overnight. The problem was not so much that the school children couldn’t cope. The teachers couldn’t teach them these subjects in English. Which is not suprising since they were all trained to teach in Malay only.

Then someone thought of a good idea. Give the teachers notebooks. When they can’t answer the question in English, all they have to do is look for the prescribed answer in English at the click of the mouse. But the problem was and still is, the students don’t know how to ask the questions in English. They couldn’t ask any questions in any language either.

Please go tell them and their parents about the Vision 2020 and 1Malaysia in English and see if anyone understands anything.

I can’t understand why we are in such a mess when all our prime ministers have been education ministers before. They’ve got all the power and authority to put things right in the first place.

It may be just fortuituos that for the first time in 52 years we now have an education minister who is also the deputy prime minister. Maybe something can be done at last to raise the proficiency of English. Or Malay. Or any other language lah.

(By BOB TEOH,MySinchew)