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MP: If Bersatu Wants Vernacular Schools Abolished Due To National Unity, Then What About International Schools?

MP: If Bersatu Wants Vernacular Schools Abolished Due To National Unity, Then What About International Schools?

Non-Chinese enrolment in vernacular Chinese primary schools are at 18% nationwide.

In the most recent episode of Attack On Vernacular Schools, Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Senator Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, who is also the Armada wing chief, said that they are adamant that vernacular schools be abolished.

According to him, this is because vernacular schools have not produced students who possess a “strong national identity”. He states that the vernacular schools have a clear negative perception within the common people in failing to produce such students.

He also argued a study found that many vernacular school graduates could only show mastery of their own mother tongue, which he claims is at odds with the need to master the national language.

Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Senator Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.
(Credit: Yusof Mat Isa/Malay Mail)

The average vernacular school student is only able to exhibit the identity of ‘certain ethnicities’ according to school that are separated based on ethnicity.

Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal

He states that the average vernacular school student does not look national and does not reflect the national image to achieve national integration.

In response, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching asked if he will recommend “phasing out” international schools in Malaysia as well, because not only do they not teach in the national language, they don’t even use the national curriculum. Would international school students, or even their parents who send them there, be considered not nationalistic?

She questioned his intentions for singling out vernacular schools and the relentless attacks on such schools, especially in his assumption that vernacular schools were ethnic-based and not nationalistic.

She cited official statistics from the Ministry of Education, taking that non-Chinese enrolment in vernacular Chinese primary schools (SJKC) were at 18% nationwide. In Sabah, it goes as high as 71.5%.

This is the latest news in a long history of conflict between Chinese vernacular schools and the government.

Read more:
Wan Ahmad Fayhsal says Bersatu Youth adamant vernacular schools abolished in stages [Malay Mail]
Are Malaysians who send kids to international schools also ‘not nationalistic’? DAP MP asks deputy Youth minister [Malay Mail]
What Is UEC And Do Their Students Even Sit For PMR or SPM? [TRP]
What is Dong Zong, anyway? [TRP]

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