KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Free communicative English classes in Urban Transformation Centres (UTC) and community centres is slated to kick off early next year.
Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah said the proposal was mooted by the Treasury earlier this week and aims to enhance the standard of communicative English among lower-income groups.
The Finance Ministry has allocated RM10 million for the project under the National Blue Ocean Strategy.
Retired teachers and members of non-governmental organisations will be paid an allowance to teach evening classes at the centres.
The classes would be open to working adults, housewives and students.
Mohd Irwan said the department would be formulating the details on the programme over the next two months.
He said this included meeting with the Education Ministry and conducting surveys at ground level to gauge interest among the target audience.
“We are looking at setting up the programme in highly populated areas, mainly targeting those from the lower income group.
“But first, we need to find out how people want to attend the classes. Only then can we determine the number of classes and the amount of people in one class,” he said.
Mohd Irwan said the Treasury would have to work with the Education Ministry to identify the number of retired teachers to be engaged.
“We will need to find out where they live, so it will be easy for them to get to the classes in their area.
“Of course, we will also discuss details of the curriculum. The participants will not have to take examinations like in school or university,” he said.
“Communicative English is about instilling confidence for the participants to speak the language,” he said.
Mohd Irwan said the pilot project would take off at Pantai Dalam and Sentul in February.
He said the idea of the project had come about during a meeting between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Treasury and corporate players in the middle of this year.
“Much like how skills training is taught overseas, we thought it would be good to teach English for free, and the prime minister agreed.
“English is deteriorating in the country and it needs to be enhanced. This is especially true for those with low income who are left out and want to improve their command of the language,” he said.
