Articles

Government needs to train 60,000 teachers to make English a must pass in SPM

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Feb 26, 2013

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said that the ministry would require a minimum of five years to train around 60,000 teachers to prepare for making English a must pass subject in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.Now, 5,000 teachers have already been trained and another 9,000 English teachers will be recruited by the government, added Wee.

On 23 February 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said English would be made a compulsory pass subject in the SPM examination when students and teachers are ready. Late last year, the Education Ministry planned to receive more English teachers from India to teach Malaysian students.

Results of the recent Cambridge Placement Test showed that two-thirds of the 70,000 English teachers in Malaysia failed to reach a proficient English level. Moreover, two in three students fail to meet the basics in English proficiency. This was based on a comparative survey of 13,000 students’ results in SPM English and Cambridge 1119 standards.

In 2011, Jobstreet.com shared some findings of its English Language Assessment (ELA) test that measure English competency. The results show that Malaysian employees ranked third behind Singapore and Philippines at all levels from non-executive to fresh graduates, junior executives, managers and senior managers.

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