Level playing field for rural students

I REFER to the recent discussion about the good and bad of teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in English. I am the product of learning STEM in English. My parents did not speak English. We lived in the rural area of Terengganu where English was not a familiar language.

Fortunately for me and my batch of schoolmates, in the 1970s, the Terengganu state government had an education policy in which selected rural students who scored 3As and more in their Standard 5 Ujian Penilaian were placed in a school that taught STEM in English. Now I am writing and speaking in English, and teaching it at university as my profession. I also teach English to under-privileged children as a pastime.