Any taker for making Mandarin 3rd language in national schools so Malay, Indian kids needn’t attend Chinese schools?
A SOMEHOW ‘viable’ idea has been mooted by former Utusan Malaysia senior editor Datuk Zaini Hassan that if Mandarin can be made a third language in the national school curriculum (after Bahasa Melayu and English), Malay or Indian parents no longer have to send their children to Chinese national-type primary schools (SJKC).
The editorial adviser at BebasNews.my further caveated that the government should place skilled and professional Mandarin teachers in national schools as this will eventually attract SJKC pupils to migrate to a single-stream education that many nationalists deem as an ultimate solution to resolve ethnic division and conflicts in Malaysia.
In the meantime, Zaini also suggested that national schools “be dignified again” as during the pre-1970s “when Malay, Chinese and Indian pupils were a happy lot studying in one school, one stream and having one mind”.
But many parents beg to differ at Zani’s rather simplistic vision given that non-Chinese parents send their children to SJKC not just to learn Mandarin but they are “hard up for a well-rounded education and skills in science and mathematics”.
Aside from “solid facilities and funding” in addition to “quality teaching standards and pupils’ discipline”, some parents regretted that many national schools “have turned deaf ears to complaints for improvements”.
In fact, some parents cannot be blamed for ‘agreeing to disagree’ with the opposition-slant veteran journalist “who is somehow detached from current trends”.
Inevitably, parents are also sceptical if Zaini’s proposal can be properly executed as a similar exercise had been implemented in the past but flopped. Above all else, such proposal will be subject to “excessive politicising”.
Perhaps it is the national schools that ought to be re-branded at the end of the day for the SJKC system is running fine at this moment. – March 13, 2024
Main image credit: China Press
Some one did asked, was consent sought when media featured quote from social media for their article or report? Did the lead writer done their due diligence or simply hentam picking from the low hanging bunch? Want to get sued only start to debate the ethics of social media quoting without prior consent? Just wondering...
ReplyDeleteA SOMEHOW ‘viable’ idea has...
ReplyDeleteviable??? whoever u r, where have u been?
r u aware, have u seen what happened to dual language prg? they (I still have no clue who these unseen but influential people are) will make it difficult and keep changing goalpost to suite their game.
if you take up this offer, IMHO, in the end, u have neither SJK nor proper and effective mandarin lessons in SK!!!