My daughter's UPSR result - she did it!!!

My 12-year old daughter got 5As for her UPSR...hooray!

Who would have thought the girl you arrived from the UK almost 2 years ago, who didn't speak a single word of Malay could get A for both 'pemahaman' and 'penulisan' BM... SubhanAllah!

I have dreamt for the day that my children would be able to speak Malay. The reason is that I believe every child should be able to speak the language of their ancestors.

When my daughter was a baby, I tried to speak to her in Malay. I even sang 'Pok amai-amai, belalang kupu-kupu' to her. She enjoyed the song but ignored me when I tried to communicate with her in Malay.

When we were returning to Malaysia, I wrote a simple book for my kids. Just a few simple Malay words for them to learn but they weren't interested.

It was only until they started school at the local Sekolah Kebangsaan that they realized the importance of learning the language. Other children didn't want to speak to them in English and they could not understand the teacher's instructions...it was the reality that forced them to learn Malay and propelled them to make the effort. Now, my kids understand and speak Malay, although not brilliantly and they have a weird accent but at least I have achieved my dreams and I'm happy Alhamdulillah.

Although my kids have benefitted from the Maths and Science being taught in English but I support the government's decision to stop teaching Maths and Science in English. I believe teaching those subjects in English is not going to improve the level of English in this country and it may even be detrimental as our children fail to master the Malay language as well. It is very important for children in this country to master the Malay language, to be able to construct proper sentences, to have a breadth of vocabulary and to be able to use Malay as an effective form of communication. With a good command of language, it should be easy for a child to pick up other languages as well.

Unfortunately, Malay children particularly suffer from weak command of English and even the standard Malay language. We need to look at the language development of children in this country and how we as parents, teachers and community communicate with our children.