english in schools.

I got my Maxim on the other day when I found myself speaking to someone who had his Masters in education policy.  He mentioned that the Philippine legislature was about to pass a bill that would make the teaching of mathematics in English mandatory.  It was already common practice in schools from primary school through to university, and he was outraged.

'Kids should be learning mathematics in their own language', he reasoned.  They're already trying to learn one subject, he said - they shouldn't have to grapple with new concepts while simultaneously trying to translate everything they hear in their head.  He told me that the Philippines has the second lowest rate of basic numeracy in the world: that one way to combat this was to take out one of the biggest roadblocks - learning it in a language with which they're not familiar.

It was fascinating stuff.  He mentioned at a conference in Australia he met some people from New Zealand who said that they were teaching maths in Maori (a kura kaupapa school, I guess?).  I could hear the frustration in his voice when he told me why can't they do that here?

I can already see some points of difference: like the fact that English is already the default language in New Zealand and that the move to teach in Maori is about fostering a dying language rather than because the children are having difficulty learning in English.  And I can understand the desire of the Filipino government to want to immerse their children in a language recognised internationally in the hopes of becoming a competitive part of the global market.  But I do see his point and it was interesting listening to him: an unexpected wee gem of conversation in what I was assuming was just going to be a routine 30-second 'so do you like it in the Philippines? / yes it is very warm and the food is of course delicious' bit.