PETALING JAYA: Make English education a focus in the upcoming Budget 2025 instead of trying to bring in foreign teachers, say parent associations and teachers.
Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education chairman Mak Chee Kin said the government should focus on improving the quality of existing English-based education programmes.
“Some of the education budget should go to improving our existing programmes like the Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) and Dual-Language Programme (DLP).
“These programmes are always in need of more resources and teachers so that the students are able to better learn English,” he said.
Mak said funds should also go towards improving the quality of teachers in these programmes, cutting any reliance on the need for foreign English teachers.
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“We do not need teachers from other countries who may not know our culture, needs or standards.
“Instead, we should focus on improving our local teachers, which is a far better investment in the long run towards enhancing national English proficiency.
“If our teachers are lacking, funds must go towards retraining and supporting them to be up to par,” he added.
Centre for Vernacular School Excellence director Arun Dorasamy called on the government to allocate more funding to train English teachers in the country.
“In Tamil vernacular schools, almost 85% to 90% of our English teachers are not trained to teach English as a second language,” he said.
He also called for the expansion of the DLP programme to more schools as the government looks to expand the digital economy.
“Investing in English is the key to unlocking global digital knowledge, and as AI and a digital-driven economy become more prevalent, the role of English as a global language is undeniable.
“English proficiency is a must if we want to prepare our students and future generations to be globally competitive.
“We must also bring back standardised final examinations like UPSR and PT3 to better gauge our students’ English proficiency nationwide,” he added.
Parent Action Group for Education chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said the government should set up an English medium national school in every state which would function as a source of quality English teachers.
“Either building or converting a single national secondary school into an English-medium one in every state would help ensure that we have a consistent supply of good English speakers.
“This would both expand the DLP programme while ensuring that we can produce a consistent supply of proficient English teachers,” she said.
In June, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he had proposed for Singaporean volunteer English teachers to come and teach English in Malaysia.
Anwar said the goal was to boost national English proficiency and improve bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries.
