The Malaysian Insight

CHINESE school boards must be involved in the decision to teach Jawi in their schools, said MCA Youth chief Nicole Wong Siaw Ting.

While reiterating that MCA Youth was not against the learning of Jawi, she, however, said it should not be included in Bahasa Malaysia textbooks.

Wong said the Chinese schools’ board – not the parent-teacher associations (PTAs) – should decide whether its primary schools should implement Jawi lessons.

However, she said judging by how the Education Ministry treated the representatives of Dong Jiao Zong yesterday, it was adamant about implementing the the move.

“We want the boards of these schools to be involved in the decision-making process. The Education Ministry must involve them if the school is to teach Jawi or not,” she said at the 55th MCA Youth annual general assembly in Kuala Lumpur today.

Last August, following protests from Dong Zong and its allies, the ministry said vernacular schools would only be required to teach Jawi at a basic level and with the consent of pupils and each school’s PTA.

“In the latest discussion, the cabinet has decided to keep the previous decision of last week so that the Jawi script introduction remains, but this will be implemented only if agreed upon by the PTAs, parents and pupils,” the ministry had said in a statement.

Yesterday, Dong Jiao Zong and civil society groups aligned to it had sent a memo to the ministry demanding for school boards to have say in the teaching of Jawi in vernacular schools.

The Chinese educationist group’s president, Tan Tai Kim, said they are unhappy that school boards were not listed as decision-makers, despite five earlier meetings with the ministry.

Following the initial outcry over the teaching of Jawi or khat in vernacular schools, the ministry had decided to make the introduction of khat optional upon the approval of PTAs, parents and pupils.

However, it left out vernacular school boards as part of the decision-making process. – November 30, 2019.