A National School System can help realize 1Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 -- For 1Malaysia to succeed, the government needs to streamline the education system by having a national school system to promote national integration, said former Dewan Negara Speaker Tan Sri Michael Chen.

He said through the system, the national language would be the basic language or the medium of instruction to promote nation building, while Mandarin, Tamil and English would be taught as an option.

Chen said the system was similar to the Switzerland education system where parents were given the opportunity to choose the preferred language to be learned by their children, whether Italian, German or English, depending on their needs.

"All schools will have the same system, same finance (financial aid) and the same curriculum from the government," he said at a forum on "1Malaysia" organised by the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama)'s Centre of Excellence and Taima Journalism Academy, here, Thursday.

Forum moderator and Bernama deputy editor-in-chief Zulkefli Salleh had earlier asked Chen for his opinion on the 1Malaysia concept mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He said the national school system would enable children of different races to seek education at the same type of school, thus promoting racial integration from an impressionable age.

"This means if the parents want their children to excel in English, Mandarin or Tamil, they can send them to any school they want," said Chen who served under three prime ministers - Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

However, he said, this did not mean that vernacular schools would be abolished.

"The vernacular schools will remain but will be using the national curriculum where the national language is a compulsory subject, while the other languages will be taught as an option.

"Through the proposed system, everyone will have an equal platform to get an education, thus eliminating claims of government favouritism towards certain schools when disbursing aid," he added.

-- BERNAMA