No stopping education blueprint, says Muhyiddin

The National Education Blueprint (PPPM) 2013-2025, scheduled to be launched next month, would be implemented and not be obstructed by objections from any quarters, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic).

He said the plan, if not implemented, could be seen as a weakness on the part of the government, and would also affect the national school education system.

Speaking to Malaysian journalists after making a courtesy call on Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok yesterday, he gave an assurance that the vernacular Tamil and Chinese schools would not be abolished.

The PPPM is strongly opposed by the United Chinese School Committee's Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) for fear that it would affect the status of vernacular schools and the Chinese language in national education.

Muhyiddin, who arrived here for a two-day official visit, said there was no mention in the blueprint that the Chinese language schools would be abolished.

He said the blueprint, containing 17,000 suggestions, was aimed at improving national schools which were considered weak by many quarters.

Despite the objection by Dong Zong, the deputy prime minister praised some representatives from the Chinese community for giving suggestions to improve the blueprint, like having longer hours for the learning of the Chinese and English languages.