PETALING  JAYA, Nov 17 — Non-Muslim students should not be asked to attend Jawi classes in schools unless a collective decision is made by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), says the Education Ministry.

Parents have a choice whether or not they want their child to learn Jawi lessons offered to non-Muslims in primary schools, due to a lack of teachers for classes like Mandarin and Tamil subjects.

However, D. Danny, 29, alerted Malay Mail that his nephews had been forced to attend Jawi classes at an unamed school in Kepong since April.

He said his nephews aged eight and nine had been getting low marks in Jawi and that it had been demotivating for them.

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“Since it is not a compulsory subject, I don’t want my nephews to be taking something they are not interested in.

“I would rather they take another subject they are interested in.”

The headmistress of the school, however, said the reason non-Muslim students were told to participate in Jawi classes and sit for examinations was because there had not been many requests for other classes.

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“We also don’t have relevant teachers for other subjects or enough students to make up a class.

“Hence, non-Muslim students are being sent to Jawi classes.

“We don’t want them to waste their time doing nothing during that period of time.”

“I also hope parents would understand that Jawi classes have nothing to do with religious teaching.

“Jawi is just like learning Tamil and Mandarin.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap confirmed Jawi was only an elective subject in primary schools.

She said in the case of this particular school, it was not about right or wrong but the school should have consulted the PTA before making a decision.

“We will investigate if a discussion had taken place between the headmistress and PTA.

“However, the intention of the school is to ensure that non-Muslim students make use of the time in learning and not be idle.”

She said compulsory subjects in primary schools are Bahasa Malaysia, English, Science, Mathematics, Islamic studies for Muslims and Moral studies for non-Muslims.