KUALA LUMPUR – The Education Ministry has the wrong focus on the Dual Language Programme (DLP) by refusing to assist schools and parents that wish to return to the original programme, said the Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE).
“The focus by the MoE instead should be to support and assist the schools that do not meet the national average for Bahasa Malaysia in order for them to apply to become a DLP school. It is not about forfeiting the already so few DLP classes.
“How much more political pandering can parents and Malaysia take?” PAGE chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said in a statement.
She said the original criteria for the DLP when it was created in 2015 were for parents to give their written consent for the programme that is applied to the science and mathematics subjects and for the school to ensure it had the resources to carry it out sustainably.
“Every school was encouraged to have at least one DLP class at every level. (However), at the last minute, prior to implementation in 2016, the Malay ultra-nationalists insisted on a fourth criteria: which was to impose a Bahasa Melayu (BM) requirement on schools.
“The respective schools needed to meet either the national average for BM in UPSR or SPM prior to applying to seek approval to adopt the DLP.
“In effect, a particular school needed to be good in BM even before applying to conduct science and mathematics classes in the English language,” Azimah said.
She said the result of this has been “self-destructive”, as Malay children are denied the chance to enhance their proficiency in the English language.
“When DLP was established, it was these very Malay children that we had most in mind to elevate their wellbeing, give them a better chance in life and in some cases, even bring them out of the poverty trap,” Azimah added.
Noting the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia results for 2023, where 9,306 students failed BM and over 40,000 failed English, she said, “Malay ultra-nationalists should be proud of themselves by continuing to suppress Malay children in every way they can from progress, prosperity, a global outlook and employment prospects”.
PAGE’s statement follows Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek’s recent insistence that schools continue adhering to DLP criteria.
A week earlier, the minister affirmed the same matter, that schools must have at least one class per standard or form that conducts the DLP in BM.
The DLP is back in the spotlight after the school boards and the parent-teacher associations of 11 national-type secondary schools and Chinese secondary schools in Penang urged the ministry to respect the wishes of parents and conduct the programme unconditionally. This would mean teaching science and mathematics in English without the condition of teaching them in BM as well.
Azimah said 90% of primary schools in Sabah and the peninsula do not offer DLP at all, adding this was not something the ministry should be proud of. – June 12, 2024
