To ignore English is to be impractical, says Adenan

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem today trashed the national education policy, saying the emphasis for Malaysians to be proficient in only one language was a "failure". Defending his policy in making English the state's second language from criticism by "lingual nationalists" in the peninsula, Adenan said the national education policy had failed young Malaysians because it produced thousands of unemployed graduates. "We are producing thousands of graduates every year who can't find jobs because they are not proficient in English. "They can't string 10 words together (in English)," he said at the launch of Books for Asia programme, in Kuching. Adenan asked why couldn't the national education policy emulate other countries that placed emphasis in proficiency for both the national language and English. "Let us be practical about this. Let us not be narrow-minded. "English is the language of commerce, science and language between countries. "To ignore English is to be impractical." Adenan said Malaysia should be practical and join the international bandwagon to make Malaysians proficient in the language. "If we do not join the bandwagon, we will be stupid." He also asked the "lingual nationalists" why Malaysians could not be bi-lingual or even tri-lingual. "We should learn English on top of Bahasa Malaysia," he added. – February 15, 2016. ]]>