Vernacular school validity issue goes to Court of Appeal

Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and two other NGOs have filed an appeal over the validity of vernacular schools.

The three NGOs’ legal team today announced that they filed the appeal to the Court of Appeal against a Kuala Lumpur High Court verdict on Dec 29 last year.

The High Court ruled the existence of vernacular schools - that utilise Chinese and Tamil languages as mediums of instruction - are constitutionally valid.

In his ruling, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said that vernacular schools are not public authorities and the use of a non-Bahasa Malaysia medium of instruction for teaching in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools are not for an official purpose, thus not infringing Article 152 (1) of the Federal Constitution.

The High Court then dismissed the lawsuit by the three NGOs over the validity of vernacular schools. 

Besides Isma, the other two appellants are Majlis Pembangunan Pendidikan Islam Malaysia (Mappim) and Coalition of National Writers’ Associations (Gapena).

Through a statement, lawyers confirmed that the three NGOs filed their respective appeals between Jan 25 and today.

The lawyers are Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla as well as legal practitioners from two other law firms, Amelda Fuad Abi & Aidil and Hariz Syakinah & Co.

They contended that the appeal will touch on the issue of whether vernacular schools are public authorities or otherwise.

Medium of instruction

“We were also instructed to emphasise that the three NGOs support every effort to increase mastery of a third language, whether Mandarin, Tamil, Arabic, Kadazan, or other languages including Japanese and Korean via teaching and learning of the languages as a subject (in class).

“But (we) reject any of the foreign languages from being used as mediums of instruction in any public educational institutions that receive public funds because that would contravene the status of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language that must be used in all official functions.

“Therefore, we hope this appeal can give clarity on the position of the national language, and not be used as a racial issue by irresponsible quarters,” the lawyers said. - Mkini