THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MBMMBI TO REPLACE PPSMI

MBMMBI BOOKLET

The government's decision  to replace PPSMI (the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English) by MBMMBI ( To Uphold Bahasa Malaysia and to Strengthen the English Language) has become a major issue among parents lately.

I have the opportunity to attend Majlis Bersama Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia (KPM) on the 20th October 2011whereby MBMMBI policy has been explained together with four other new policies to be implemented soon.Based on the knowledge I obtained from the briefing, discussion and leaflet given on this subject, I will try to clarify the implementation of MBMMBI here.

As we all know, PPSMI was started in 2003. Since then, about 20 studies have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of PPSMI. These studies have revealed  findings which include:

• The result of the UPSR examination for Science and Mathematics in National Schools showed a deterioration in the achievement of the ABC for the first batch who went through the full PPSMI in primary school.
• The gap in achievement between schools in the urban and rural areas in the level of Science and Mathematics had widened during the implementation of PPSMI.
• On Average,English was used only between 53 and 58% of the time allocated for the teaching of Science and Mathematics.
• The result of UPSR, PMR and SPM showed that the achievement of students in BM was much higher than in English irrespective of whether the student were in the urban or rural areas. The result showed that the students did better when Science and Mathematics were taught in BM.

Based on the shortcomings of PPSMI the government has approved the implementation of MBMMBI as follows:

1. The teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in BM  in Tahun 1 has started in 2011
2. The teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in BM in Tingkatan 1 will start in 2012
3. For the rest of Tahun and Tingkatan, the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics will be carried out bilingually.
4. The Science and Mathematics examinations for UPSR and SPM will continue to be carried out bilingually until 2016 and 2015 respectively.
5. Text books of Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia will be given to Tingkatan 1, Tingkatan 4 in 2012.

I hope the above brief explanation has helped you as parents and students in understanding the current state of affair in the implementation of MBMMBI.

In order to gauge the preference of students  in the  learning of  Science and Mathematics, PIBG has prepared a poll to be completed by SMK Seafield students who will be in form 2 to form 5 next year. Please find the poll at the right of this posting. This finding will help PIBG to indicate to the school administrator regarding your preference as SMK Seafields students.

For your further reading regarding MBMMBI please click here.

To parents, please feel free to leave your comments or inquiries. PIBG will try our best to help you. To students of Form 2 to Form 5 next year, please  select your preference by completing the poll. Your cooperation is indeed appreciated.

Thanks.

Warm Regards,
YDP PIBG