Vernacular schools give parents Jawi consent forms as school year begins

The new school year has begun and one of the most talked-about change in the syllabus - the Year 4 Bahasa Melayu textbook for vernacular schools - is now in use.

The Education Ministry previously announced it would give parents the first say on the three-page Jawi introduction in the textbook.

Operationally, this would be done by distributing consent forms to parents at the start of the school year.

After obtaining a vote from parents, the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) will decide on the matter and submit a collective response to the  Education Department in its district. 

In the absence of a PTA, the school board will step in to decide.

The form, which Malaysiakini sighted, is titled “Implementing the introduction to Jawi writing in the Bahasa Melayu subject curriculum for Year 4 SJK in stages starting 2020”.

Parents or guardians can mark whether they “agree” or “disagree” with the implementation of Jawi lessons for their child.

Checks with several Tamil vernacular schools showed that all had received the forms before the school year started on Jan 2.

They have since distributed copies to parents of Year 4 students, who have 14 days to return the completed forms to schools.

Among the schools Malaysiakini spoke to were SJK (T) St Teresa Convent (Taiping), SJK (T) Serdang, SJK (T) Jalan Lobak (Seremban), SJK (T) Highlands (Klang) and SJK (T) Jalan Fletcher (Kuala Lumpur).

“We received the forms a few days before school started and we distributed them when school started. We have already given them to all the parents,” said SJK (T) St Teresa Convent PTA deputy president R Subramaniam.

Some Chinese schools without consent forms

Checks with four Chinese primary schools, however, found two still waiting for the forms from the ministry while one had just received it.

When contacted, SJK (C) Kheow Bin (Kuala Lumpur) PTA committee member Michael Koid said the school had yet to receive the forms.

“We have not received it. If we received the form, we will distribute it,” he told Malaysiakini.

Similarly, SJK (C) Mun Choong (Kuala Lumpur) PTA committee member Ong U Chin said he was not aware of any forms to be distributed to the parents of Year 4 children.

A teacher from a third Chinese primary school in the Klang Valley, who declined to be named, told Malaysiakini that the school had only received the forms yesterday (Jan 7) and it would distribute them to parents today.

The PTA head for SJK (C) Hwa Lien 3 (Taiping), Ooi Cheng Cheng, said his school had distributed the forms to parents on Monday.

“We asked the parents of the Year 4 children to come and we (distributed) the forms in the school hall. We had informed them of the purpose of the Monday assembly.

“Some of them have already given back their forms,” Ooi said.

Other students also given forms

At several Tamil schools, PTA members told Malaysiakini that the forms were also distributed to parents of students who were not in Year 4.

Subramaniam, who has children at SJK (T) St Teresa and SJK (T) Kamunting (Perak), but none in Year 4, said he too was asked to fill up the form.

“They (the ministry) said the forms were only for Year 4 but some of the schools gave the forms to pupils in Year 1, 2 and 3.

“They gave it to everybody and asked the parents to fill up and return the forms,” he said.

A parent, whose child is in Year 1 at SJK (T) Jalan Fletcher, also said parents of children in the school were asked to fill up the forms.

R Kannan of the Seni Khat Action Team (Sekat), a group that had campaigned against the incorporation of Jawi lessons, questioned the confusion created.

“Jawi writing is supposed to be introduced to students in Year 4," he said.

"So why is the ministry distributing consent forms to students in Year 6 (and other years)?” Kannan asked. - Mkini