Malaysian Education Ministry to upskill 23,000 English language teachers by end-2015

The Malaysian Education Ministry plans to retrain up to 23,000 primary and secondary English teachers by end of this year to improve their preparedness to teach the language.

This series of upskilling programmes began when English subject teachers scored low in the Cambridge Placement Test in 2012. Two-thirds of the 70,000 English teachers in Malaysia failed to reach a proficient English level. In 2014, 5,000 English teachers completed their training. Currently, 9,500 teachers are undergoing training and expected to complete by mid-2015.

“We have to ensure that teachers undergoing the training reach a grade of C1 or C2, equivalent to the skills of teachers in England,” said Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

A grade of B2 is believed to be substantial in Malaysia however Idris insists that the language proficiency level must be on par with that in England.

“We are serious in our effort to ensure the level of English in Malaysia is alongside the Common European Framework of Reference which is under the administration of Cambridge University,” he added.

A teacher’s English ability is graded through a scale of A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 with A1 being the lowest and C2 the highest. According to Idris, those who achieve B2 will be further trained to achieve the ideal mark while those who attain less than B2 will be given different options.