A CRITICAL REVIEW ON THE LACK OF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY AMONG

MALAYSIAN GRADUATES

Nowadays, the challenges are everywhere. Everyone faces their own challenges in
the way for achieving the tag of success. Malaysian graduates suffer as they lose out in the
job market. There are students who are excellent enough as they manage to score a CGPA
(Cumulative Grade Point Average) of 3.5, sometimes up to 4, but they still cannot get a job.
The research had been done and the cause of this issue occurs already found. The reason
why the graduates cannot get the job because they cannot convince their interviewers that
they have what it takes to lead. They are not confident during their interview session due to
their poor command of the English language.

Some intellectual people give their opinions about this issue. The Umno president,
Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that despite scoring well in their examinations, Malaysian
graduates still struggled to secure jobs because they fail to persuade employers that they
possess the qualities sought after in the corporate sector. As Malaysia Employers
Federation (MEF) executive director, Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan laments, it is becoming
increasingly difficult to hire fresh graduates who can communicate effectively in English. He
then said, the problem seems to be getting worse and is more acute among fresh graduates.
Their level of proficiency does not command the confidence of employers to hire them. In
addition, that most of them are aged between 20 and 28. Shamsuddin says the existing low
level of proficiency among our graduates is “something that shouldn’t have happened,”
especially in the critical sectors like medicine.

Malaysian Medical Association past president, Datuk Dr N.K.S Tharmaseelan

concurs with Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan. He urges for the standard of English among
doctors to be improved. He who is also Asia Metropolitan University president and CEO then
said, the English proficiency among newly graduating doctors is atrocious indeed. Many
cannot string a sentence properly. “We can advance nationally but we need to be good in
the English language to be global players.” he added. Sunway College’s Monash University
foundation programme coordinator, Edith Macintyre said English proficiency among many
local students who enter the institution's foundation programme is so poor. These students
are brilliant in other subjects like chemistry, mathematics and others, but to enter many
universities abroad, they have to sit for English proficiency tests. Unluckily, this is where
many of them do not succeed.
 Every problem has its own solution, so it same goes for this issue. As Malaysian
graduates lack leadership skills and the ability to articulate well, so they cannot perform in
their interview session. Our government organise a dialogue session named 1Malaysia
Training Scheme (SL1M). SL1M is intended to develop the potential graduates who lack
self-confidence and make them more employable. The programme is an integral part of
Putrajaya's effort to strengthen the country's human capital and increase Malaysia's
competitiveness in the global services market. SL1M, a programme supervised by the
Economic Planning Unit, has produced over 10,000 graduates to date, and Datuk Seri Najib
Razak today said Putrajaya is aiming to increase enrolment to 15,000. So, we can see that
the effort of our government to help the graduates for getting the job as they already
struggled a lot to achieve the best score, so they deserve for the good job.

Besides, the standard of English in schools has to improve. Macintyre, who has
experience teaching English in local schools previously also agreed with this statement. “We
need to stop watering down the language for students in schools, the standard of SPM
English is not up to par, and it will not help our students in the long run,” she said. Macintyre
said the English language should not be confined to just one subject in a class room. “If you
confine the language to just one subject, then you are immediately restricting students,
especially those who come from households where English is not the primary language,” she
added. Macintyre said although Malaysia has lost a generation of English speakers due to
the shift in the education system, the talents of the older generation should be utilised to
improve the command of English among students.

In my opinion, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM) have to create the new

syllabus for the students in secondary schools. Yes, it sounds like troubling the students as
they have to study the new things, but I think that is the good idea. The standard of English
in schools has to improve to make sure the students are well-prepared when they continue
their education in higher stage. English is the international language, so many interview
sessions are going to be in English, so it means that the students must be good one in their
English. For me, speaking fluently and confidently is the most important element in English
as learning language is not all about writing, but it includes speaking, listening and reading.

In the nutshell, the lack of English proficiency among Malaysians graduates is the big
issue for now. To avoid the graduates do not getting the job, they have to improve their
English. Even though Malaysia is not English speaking country, but they manage to prove
that they can speak fluently in English.
 REFERENCE

1. New Oxford English-English-Malay Dictionary Second Edition, 2012

2. https://themalaymailonline.com
3. https://thesundaily.my
4. https://thestar.com.my
5. https://ms.oxforddictionaries.com