Zahrain: I’m not against vernacular education

He denies calling for them to be abolished as he smarts from criticism, especially in Tamil newspapers.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Hashim has denied that he called for the abolition of vernacular schools during a parliamentary debate last week.

He said he did not deserve the criticism he had been getting since, especially from Tamil newspapers.

“It was taken out of context,” he said. “What I meant to say is that the whole system has failed to produce appropriate human capital for the next generation.

“I was not only referring to Tamil and Chinese schools, but even religious schools.”

He said the thrust of his speech was to praise the Sekolah Wawasan concept as the best means of producing human capital.

The Sekolah Wawasan is one of the models the government uses to encourage racial integration. Under the model, National, Chinese and Tamil schools share the same premises and facilities although their curricula are different.

Zahrain said the idea of abolishing vernacular schools was far from his mind when he was making his speech.

He suggested that Tamil and Chinese be made compulsory subjects in the Wawasan schools if it was the problem of language that was preventing the government from establishing more of them.