Malaysia brings English back into classroom - The Daily Telegraph

By Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia put the language of its old colonial master back into the heart of its education system yesterday, almost 30 years after expelling it.

For decades, schools for the country's different communities have taught in Malay, Chinese or Tamil, but now all maths and science classes will be in English.

Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister, who frequently rails against Western "imperialism", was behind the U-turn. As education minister he pushed through the switch to Malay in the 1970s, but now says: "We have to accept English whether we like it or not."

The new education policy is a response to economic realities and the fact that the quality of English, which dominates business, has deteriorated over the decades.

"Malay Muslims don't have the same fluency in the English language and are therefore shut out of jobs in the private sector," said Karim Raslam, a commentator.

[From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/1418169/Malaysia-brings-English-back-into-classroom.html]