KOTA KINABALU, June 4- Newly-appointed Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap has suggested that “past best practices’, including prioritising aspects of grammar be incorporated into school teaching methods for the English language.
She opined that there was a need to bring back proven best practices to improve the standard of English in schools.
Mary said the Education Ministry was aware of the issue of the English Language, which had been constantly debated in the media, particularly the unfavourable results on English proficiency in the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination.
“That’s why the Ministry of Education is seriously looking into ways and means to address this issue in line with the government’s transformation programme.
“I realised that there have been past practices that have been beneficial and have worked effectively to encourage positive outlook in learning english. I suggest that best practices in the past like English Day, English Week or English Month be continued,” she told reporters after meeting district education officers as well as presenting letters of promotion to secondary school principals who had been promoted from grade DG52 to DG54 at the Federal Building (Rumah Persekutuan), Sembulan, near here today. Also present was Sabah Education Director Jame Alip.
Apart from that, Mary said schools, including primary ones, were encouraged to organise speech competitions as part of their efforts to achieve the desired result.
On the teaching of grammar in schools, she believed that it would further enhance the existing English Language syllabus that covered listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.
“It is very important that activities based-learning are relevant to what has been taught. In this way, you will see grammatical aspects of English being applied,” she said.
The former educationist also suggested all schools, especially in Sabah to set up English Language Teachers’ Club to help realise the ministry’s vision.
On the shortage of English teachers, particularly in the rural areas of Sabah, Mary said she wanted a full report on the matter, thus bringing this issue up for consideration at the ministry level.
She also expressed her concerns over the standard of English proficiency among English language teachers in the country “where only 30 per cent of those who have sat for the Cambridge Placement Test (CPL) recently managed to score “C” (competent)”.
“But, we are seriously addressing this problem, including upskilling these teachers ,” she said.
– BERNAMA
