HARI ESOK

Monday, November 07, 2005

Mother tongue for maths and science

Mother tongue for maths and science

Let us have a factual discussion on this topic.

Fact 1: Our Creator created races and languages. The Quran says: "O mankind! We created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another." (Quran 49:13)

When Islamic civilisation was at its peak, Europe was in the Dark Ages. Europeans came into contact with Islamic civilisation when Islam spread to Europe.

European scholars learn science and mathematics in Andalusia (Spain) in Arabic. Some ventured to Arab countries to study. On returning to Europe, these scholars translated knowledge, and books, acquired into mother tongue. The European public was then taught this new knowledge in their mother tongue. The books were used as reference for many years.

When the Muslims abandoned love for learning, which is Allah's first command to them, the Europeans surpassed them in many fields.

Fact 2: Following are quotes from an article "The mother-tongue dilemma: UNESCO Education" available on the Internet:

i. Studies show that we learn better in our mother tongue.
ii. Teachers have known for years the value of teaching children in their mother tongue.
iii. Many studies have shown children do better if they get a basic education in their own language.
iv. In New Zealand, a recent study showed that Maori children who received basic edsucation in their own language performed better than those educated in English only.
v. In the United States, a research unit at George Mason University in Virginia has monitored results at twenty three primary schools in fifteen States since 1985. Four out of six different curricula involved were partly conducted in the mother tongue. The surveys shows that, after ELEVEN YEARS OF SCHOOLING, there is a direct link between acaedemic results and the time spent learning in the mother tongue.

Fact 3: Let us see how Nabi Muhammad saw and the khalifahs applied Islam when implementing educational policy in a multireligious and multi-racial nation-state Madinah:

"The JEWS of Madinah had set up their own religious
and EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION called Bait al-Midras
during the time of the Prohet saw.

"The JEWISH and CHRISTIAN educational instituions were left to their
communitities to MANAGE THEIR AFFAIRS during the
Ummayad and the Abbasid Caliphates.

"Muslims,Christians, Jews and Magians had conserved their own
modes of dress and social customs. An effort was made
in this way to protect the culture of every religious
community living in a Muslim state.
( Abdur Rahman I.Doi: Non-Muslims Under Shariah m.52)

So, the Malay, Chinese and Tamil educators are correct in demanding mother tongue education for children up to Form 5 and beyond, and not up to only Std 6. This demand is not emotional or racist. It is a show of appreciation to Our Creator who created mother tongue which has been proven scientifically to be the best means of imparting education to our children.

The change in the medium of instruction in Malaysian schools from mother tongue to English for science and mathematics, was made by Dr Mahathir alone. What Mahathir wanted, he got. History has shown and is showing that most decisions made by Mahathir alone have been disastrous to the nation.

Abu Abdillah

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

University Malaya slides in ranking

The latest world ranking of universities shows University Malaya (UM), my alma matta, slides down from 89 to 169 placing. How to explain this deterioration?

Prophet Muhammad ( saw) said that everyone is a leader and he is responsible for his leadership. This teaching is beautifully actualised by Khalifah Umar (ra) who said:

“If a sheep falls from a bridge even on the river Tigris and dies, God will call me to account for it on the Day of Judgment.”

Thus, it is obvious that PM Abdullah Badawi is responsible for UM's problem because he appointed Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob as UM vice chancellor, replacing Dr Anuar Zaini during whose tenureship as UM VC managed to propel UM to 89th placing.

It has been reported in the local papers that there is a lot of politiking, including party politics, in UM campus lately. Surely this will affect, directy or indirectly, the campus atmosphere and performance of staff members and students.

When decisions are made tainted by political, not solely by educational , considerations, the effect will be disastrous. This may be the main reason why Warwick University, a top 10 UK university, cancelled its plan to open a branch campus in Singapore when told that it will not have full freedom in running the university (as reported in local papers)

All these bring to mind another teaching of Prophet Muhammad (saw): when a person, who is not well verse in a particular field, is appointed to a post, more so when the appointee so coveted the post, then it won't be long before failures set in.

Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob may be a competent VC ( after all he performed extremely well as Dean of UM Dental Faculty to propel that faculty to world class) , but when he submits to political interference or when decisions are made tainted by political objectives, then the effects are what we see today.
Politicians are what they are: polticians have no expertise at all in administering a university. So to solve the problem, politicians, please don't interfere in the running, not only UM, but all insitutions of learning.

Let the people expert in the field do the job. Otherwise, wait for disaster to befall, not only our universities, but also our whole educational system.

Abi Abdillah