The State of Our National Lingo

I met a bunch of 13 year Malaysian kids of Chinese origin last evening.. What interest me was not their clothes, not their raging hormones either.. but rather their inability to communicate in our National Language.. All they needed to translate was B-13-10.. from their mother tongue to our National Language and they had a good 10 seconds discussion before they translated it correctly..  

Hhhhmm that scenario could have been by chance.. could have been because they were engulfed with excitement.. but the question is.. even in the chinese medium school Bahasa Malaysia is taught and students are required to master it.. 7 years or more and still we are struggling... it dawned upon me at that point, why the ATMAH Kids find it difficult as well..  

I could be wrong.. but the pathetic state of affairs prevails.. the question remains.. if the Education System is ever going to change.. if vernacular schools are going to continue producing equal or more amounts of drop outs as to 18As in SPM.  

What can we do differently.. i ask.. and am still asking..  

disturbed by the incident  

dhena