KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — Critics of vernacular education should push for national schools to incorporate more language subjects rather than demand that Mandarin and Tamil schools be abolished, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) pro-chancellor Tan Sri Arshad Ayub said.
In an interview published by Malay-language daily Utusan Malaysia today, Arshad said the use of only Malay and English in national schools has prevented students from mastering additional languages and left them at a disadvantage against those who learn third and even fourth tongues.
“We cannot say just have national schools, we cannot... we would have a great war,” he said when suggesting that national schools be upgraded instead.
“In national schools today, can Malays learn Mandarin? There is no option to study Mandarin in national schools. We should made it in law that, if there are 15 languages in the country, national schools be made to offer these as electives.”
During the interview that focused on the Malay community, Arshad added that limiting the number of languages that are taught in national schools was also depriving the children from less well-off families, unlike those whose parents could afford to send them to international schools.
Pointing out that international and vernacular schools equipped their students with additional skills not available in national counterparts, Arshad said it is the Malays who will end up further down the ladder without such education.
“What about our poor? Our people in villages only have national schools where they can learn Malay and English,” he added.
The call to abolish vernacular education, particularly the Chinese variant, was renewed recently when Petaling Jaya Utara Umno deputy division chief Mohamad Azli Mohamed proposed to discuss abolishing Chinese-medium schools at the party’s general assembly, claiming the schools to be hotbeds for racism and anti-establishment sentiments.
The statement sparked a flurry of angry responses from Chinese leaders, with MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai demanding a police investigation to determine whether or not Mohamad Azli’s statement was seditious.
Despite the unhappiness among its Chinese allies, Umno went ahead with fiery debates on vernacular education during its assembly last month.
Vernacular schools continue to grow in popularity here in Malaysia, with an increasing number of non-Malay parents preferring to send their children to Mandarin- and Tamil-language schools over the Malay-language national schools.
