Fatimah wants drastic action

Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah during press conference after open Persatuan Pengetua Sekolah Menengah Sarawaks 50th education management conference in Kuching yesterday. - Zulazhar Sheblee / The Star

KUCHING: If drastic measures are not taken, too many students will fail English, which by next year will become a SPM must-pass subject.

It means those who fail English will also fail to obtain their SPM certificate.

Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who keeps a watching brief over education matters for the state government, does not think Sarawakians youths are ready.

“We don’t have much time left. It’s already July. What is seriously needed is that we have to do things in a different way. We cannot just go on doing things the routine way,” Fatimah told the opening of the 50th annual Sarawak Secondary School Principal Association Conference here yesterday.

No matter what the government had planned, all that mattered to students was what was being done at the school level, she said, calling on principals to do more to ensure English would not deny school leavers of the basic certificate.

Fatimah has made this call numerous times. She has been highlighted SPM results from last year as an example. Yesterday she did the same, saying she was very worried.

“Of the 33,616 students (in Sarawak) who sat for the English paper in 2014, 7,784 students, or 23.16%, failed. Just 3,790 scored an A- or better,” Fatimah warned.

Speaking to reporters later, she said the matter was a great con- cern to her and the state government.

“Learning English takes time. You need to speak it to learn it. In school, the contact hours is fewer than Bahasa Malaysia. If students don’t get the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom, it will be tough for them.”

She would not be drawn into questions on whether the policy should be postponed.

After last year’s SPM results came out, there were calls to urge the government to postpone the English as a must-pass subject policy.

However, in January, the Education Ministry announced the implementation of the policy, which is aimed at improving command of the language, would go ahead as planned.