In a meeting with his Singapore counterpart, prime minister Mr Lawrence Wong, Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim requested for English teachers from Singapore to be dispatched to strengthen the declining standards of the language in Malaysia.

While the details of this request is yet to be worked out, educationists contend that not only will it be difficult for Singaporean English teachers but it could also prove to be costly for the Malaysian government.

A better idea will be to take English teachers from India and Sri Lanka after closely screening and vetting them and also to look into Malaysian teachers of English who are retired to once again grace the classroom.

All these ideas and suggestions and thoughts are now swirling in Malaysia because it is very obvious that the English teachers teaching in Malaysian schools are not up to the mark and possibly need to go for a real grounding in the English language.

The nation should seriously consider the feedback given by the World Bank in its Education Reports on Malaysian schools and their assessment that most teachers are not fit to be in the classroom.

Only by being sincere and entirely honest with themselves can the Malaysian education ministry make that paradigm shift to emphasise the importance of the English language as the global means of communication.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE