Poor Teachers Politicians To Blame For Bad English

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A poster advertising various events to be hosted by the College of Architectural Studies (KAB) at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) invited a barrage of criticism and much ridicule for its poor use of the English language.
One poster read, “Are you have a stress?”, while another referred to “doddle art” instead of “doodle art”.
The poster was roundly mocked by Twitter users.
-ADVERTISEMENT-Ads by One wrote: “No, I am not having stress, (I) am stressed looking at the poster.”  Another said:  “It’s a university… did anyone check the details, spelling, context, grammar, etc before promoting?”
In truth, no amount of proofreading or spellchecking will be of any use. A person whose English is poor and bad at spelling could look at the poster a hundred times and find nothing wrong with it.
It would be futile to blame our students for their poor command of English. Instead, we should blame the politicians, the system, the nationalists, and the teachers.
One could also blame our business leaders. Many noticed the steady deterioration of the English language and have been especially reluctant to employ our Malay graduates simply because they are the ones found most wanting.
Did these business leaders warn our politicians about the decline? Or did they keep quiet because they did not want to rock the boat?
This decline in English proficiency did not happen overnight. It has been going steadily downhill for several decades.
Our nationalists are eager to protect the national language and will mock those who speak English by questioning their patriotism. They  are prepared to sacrifice the students’ command of the language without thinking about their future.
The students themselves ought to know that for their English to improve, they must speak the language regularly. After all, practice makes perfect.
Our teachers are bogged down by the system which in turn is determined by the politicians and their never ending flip-flops over how English is to be taught in schools.
Switching from English to Malay then back to English does not provide continuity. It has also affected the teaching fraternity significantly.
Politicians do things with the end-purpose of getting more votes. Being seen to protect the national language means that education policies are also crafted along racial lines.
Malays are brainwashed from primary school to believe that only the national language is important. As a result, few want to learn English. The consequence of this is felt when as young adults, students are unable to secure employment in the private sector.
Promoting Bahasa Malaysia is a vote winner among the Malay electorate. To prolong their political careers, politicians have sacrificed our children’s futures.
What is more remarkable is that other members of academia throughout Malaysia have been largely quiet about our students’ low proficiency in English. Why is this?
Are the lecturers petrified of speaking out for fear of being sacked or seeing their careers stall?
The teachers’ union also appears to be in denial.
Just think of the confusion among the students. On one hand, their lecturers tell them that they should become more fluent in English.
On the other hand, politicians tell them that Bahasa Malaysia will supersede English in communication. Who is right?
So who do you think one should blame for the error-strewn UiTM poster? Surely not the student who drew it up, since he is the product of poor policy by politicians who lack a long-term vision. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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