Will single stream schools work?

It seems like every other day there are new developments in the controversy surrounding the government's proposed single stream school system. The biggest chunk of protests is coming from the Malaysian-Chinese community, who refuse to give up the quality education produced by Chinese vernacular schools.  Their protests are likely echoed by the minority of Malay and Indian parents whose children also attend these schools, having given up on the mediocre state of national schools.

The  Star ran a commentary last week, surmising that the quality of national schools should be improved instead of implementing a single stream school system. I couldn't agree more, but I also believe that English should be made the primary medium in national schools, with a student's mother tongue be made a compulsory subject. It has worked for Singapore (the Singaporeans I know speak far more refined Mandarin than a lot of Malaysians I know, even those who were educated in Chinese vernacular schools). It has also worked for a multi-language country such as India (English is the medium of instruction in national schools and in universities), where its people are able to communicate effectively in English and speak four of five Indian languages to boot!

But of course our government can't take the words of one educator and a few concerned journalists as gospel, perhaps the Ministry of Education should come up with a white paper, like the US did on improving teacher quality (see my previous post). The MOE should produce a white paper on the revamp of national schools and publish the findings on its website for the public to comment on, like the PM did for this year's budget.

Time is running out, the futures of the young should not be gambled with any longer. The longer we delay on the revamp of our public schools, the faster other, more forward-looking nations will get ahead of us.