RAY of hope for Chinese education

Is there finally a ray of hope for Chinese education regarding the much concerned Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025?

After a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Chinese education delegation, including the United Chinese School Teachers Association (Jiao Zong) chairman and Federation of Chinese Associations of Malaysia (Hua Zong) president, has brought some good news to the Chinese community, including the blueprint will contain a reassurance that Chinese and Tamil primary schools will continue to be part of the national education system and the development and expenses of vernacular schools will be included into the Education Ministry's annual expenditure, namely to systematise funding for vernacular schools.

The reassurance that Chinese and Tamil primary schools will continue to be part of the national education system means that the worry of wiping out Chinese primary school or changing their nature has been eliminated. In other words, the government has no intention to implement single-stream education to achieve the ultimate goal of the of Razak Report. According to Gerakan, the final education blueprint report would include Chinese independent schools led by the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) into the Malaysian education system. It would be a major breakthrough for Chinese education.

Last year, when the preliminary report came to light, some parts of it have raised concern and worries of the Chinese groups and Chinese education organisations. They did not agree with it and launched protests against it. Hopefully, the Education Ministry will listen to the views of the Chinese community and amend those parts that are not favourable to Chinese education to ensure the blueprint will not affect the status of Chinese education, as well as its room for development.

The Bahasa Malaysia syllabus for Chinese primary schools, the learning time of Bahasa Malaysia and the question of whether to abolish or retain remove classes have triggered massive controversies in the Chinese community. In any case, these controversial parts have been clarified during the meeting with Muhyiddin and are expected to be resolved.

Of course, we still need to wait for the launching of the finalised Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 on 6 September to make sure everything goes as the Education Ministry has promised. The Chinese community will feel relieved only when the commitments are clearly written in black and white.

The Chinese community should not be blamed for being sceptical as past experience has forced them to take every step cautiously. The Chinese community, in fact, supports education reform and recognises the blueprint's efforts and goals in enhancing the quality of national education, so that the country can become an advanced nation within the predetermined period of time. However, it is worrying the Chinese community that "little Napoleons" in the Education Ministry have always misinterpreted the initial intention of policies when implementing them and even deliberately made things difficult for Chinese education. Coupled with some provisions and regulations without clear elaboration, different people might come out with different interpretations. Therefore, the Chinese community must ensure that the meaning and content of all policies and blueprints that might affect the development and survival of Chinese education are in line with the principles of the Constitution.

The Chinese education appeal of the Chinese community is actually made in accordance with the constitutional principles. Multi-stream economy has been recognised by other races through Chinese schools and it has been proven not an obstacle to national unity, but an advantage for the country instead. At the same time, fair allocation of resources for the Chinese community will benefit all. Also, since the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) has been recognised by many foreign universities and colleges, it has reflected the certification's value and quality. As for syllabuses and the medium of teaching, Chinese schools are just requesting the retention of their characteristics while the content is absolutely in line with the national education's principles. The demand of Chinese community is very simple and clear. Many problems are not actually problems if government officials can strengthen implementation capacity to avoid unnecessary disputes and drawbacks.

The Chinese community sincerely hopes that the issue is really solved this time. However, Chinese groups must learn several major lessons along the fighting process, namely always keep calm and try to negotiate, abandon the conspiracy theory, convince with reasons and impress with love.

-Sin Chew Daily