JULY 29 — The success of Malaysian Chinese education, which has a history of nearly 200 years, has relied on the united forces and diligent work of the Chinese over the years. The 728 Assembly of Chinese Associations of Malaysia In Protest of Education Blueprint 2013-2025 involving 1,100 groups and attended by about 2,000 people was the continuation of the Chinese education movement, reflecting the determination of the Chinese community.

Some measures in the Education Blueprint 2013-2025 are unfavourable to Chinese and Tamil schools, such as the proposed implementation of the same Bahasa Malaysia curriculum in Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) for students in Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) and Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) beginning with the Year Four students in 2014, causing Chinese and Tamil schools to increase the learning hours for BM from 180 minutes to 270 minutes and needy students would have five hours of extra BM classes, making it 570 minutes per week.

According to the language teaching principle, implementing the same BM curriculum in SK for students in SJKC and SJKT would bring fear to most students and thus, another set of BM curriculum must be developed to meet the syllabuses of SJKC and SJKT, while the learning hours must also be increased appropriately to avoid affecting the tight timetables of Chinese schools and resulting in an imbalance school work.

The government should strengthen multi-stream education to make it a protection of national competitiveness. However, the Education Blueprint lacks the spirit and elaboration for this effort.

Although the Education Ministry has agreed not to adopt the proposed implementation of the same BM curriculum in SK for students in SJKC and SJKT, as well as to retain remove classes, it has also stressed that 570 minutes of learning per week has not yet been finalised, the Chinese community must still be prepared as long as the blueprint is not amended and the final report is not released.

However, one Chinese association assembly might not be enough to achieve the goal of the Chinese community, particularly as a new situation has emerged after the May 5 general election. Umno is going to hold its party election in December while former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also made the “Chinese dilemma” remarks and thus, a proper strategy is necessary.

From the increasingly fierce disagreements and conflicts among Chinese education groups and Chinese groups, we can see that the Chinese community is at a disadvantage in the struggle. It is because we have too many weaknesses, including the lack of leadership, co-ordination and wisdom.

The split among Chinese groups can be attributed to the lack of leadership. Even if it did something wrong, the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) would not receive so much criticism in the past. Today, too many dissenting voices have trapped Dong Zong in a difficult situation.

Previously, Dong Zong and Jiao Zong (Chinese School Teachers Association) would come together under the umbrella of Dong Jiao Zong but today, they point their fingers at each other. Dong Zong thinks that the learning hours for BM should be retained at 180 minutes while Jiao Zong and other groups think that it should be increased to 210 minutes. Who should the authorities listen to?

In the democratic era, authority has ceased to exist. Chinese education is a group work and leaders should strengthen their communication skills and democratic style of work to unite all forces and avoid being attacked separately.

Dong Zong should also take the initiative to contact the SJKT, churches, religious schools and other education groups to fight for amendments to the Education Blueprint.

Many Chinese schools are celebrating their centennial anniversaries this year and they can be used as a reference for Chinese education groups. Without the contribution of the people, these schools would not have achieved today’s success. As unity is strength, the key to retain and develop Chinese education is to talk less and do more. — mysinchew.com

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.