The abolition of the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) effective 2012 will save the government RM40mil annually.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Puad Zarkashi said this was recouped from the allowance given to the teachers asked to teach the three subjects.

He said they had to buy books and attend English classes to upgrade their command of the language but, ultimately, the programme still failed.

As such, he reasoned, it was best to use the allocation to translate into Bahasa Melayu the books that could strengthen the students’ learning skills.

“We have experts at the Malaysian National Institute of Translation (ITNM) who can do this,” he added.

Some 61,040 teachers in primary schools and 26,389 teachers in secondary schools teach Mathematics while 46,946 teachers in primary schools and 25,781 teachers in secondary schools teach Science.

Dr Puad said the government has allocated about RM5bil to strengthen the teaching of English in schools and would be recuriting 13,933 teachers