Nothing in the Federal Constitution provided for vernacular schools and maintaining them was a political decision.
FMT
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in his latest blog posting, conceded that the poor are being forced to put up with inferior education so that politicians can continue to be popular.
He notes that the rich, including the children of the politicians, are going to English medium schools abroad and international schools in the country while the poor go to the Malay-medium based national schools when they are not attending vernacular schools.
The Tamils and Chinese, for example, go to vernacular schools. Meanwhile, the Orang Asal in Sabah and Sarawak prefer to send their children to Chinese schools along with a handful of Malay students.
The bottomline, says Mahathir who was education minister from 1974 to 1978, is that the education system is dividing the country along the lines of race and class and widening the gap between rich and poor.
He warned that the job market favours the English-speaking, confined increasingly now to the rich, while the poor in the country only speak Tamil, Chinese and Malay.
He admitted that although all his children went to national schools, his grandchildren attended private schools in Malaysia and abroad.
“They do speak the national language but their kind of schooling widens the gap between races as well as between the rich and poor,” he lamented.
“National schools were supposed to bring us all together as a nation.”
He goes into the history of education in the country, what was happening at the dawn of independence in 1957 and what was supposed to happen but didn’t.
He warns that the return to Malay in the teaching of mathematics and science would be a loss of knowledge for the nation and would not be good for the poor.
English schools at the time of independence, noted Mahathir, were attended by all ethnic groups. “Apart from racial separation because of the ethnic language-based schools, we now see a separation of rich children and poor children,” he reiterated in his blog posting.
He said that nothing in the Federal Constitution provided for vernacular schools and maintaining them was a political decision.
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in his latest blog posting, conceded that the poor are being forced to put up with inferior education so that politicians can continue to be popular.
He notes that the rich, including the children of the politicians, are going to English medium schools abroad and international schools in the country while the poor go to the Malay-medium based national schools when they are not attending vernacular schools.
The Tamils and Chinese, for example, go to vernacular schools. Meanwhile, the Orang Asal in Sabah and Sarawak prefer to send their children to Chinese schools along with a handful of Malay students.
The bottomline, says Mahathir who was education minister from 1974 to 1978, is that the education system is dividing the country along the lines of race and class and widening the gap between rich and poor.
He warned that the job market favours the English-speaking, confined increasingly now to the rich, while the poor in the country only speak Tamil, Chinese and Malay.
He admitted that although all his children went to national schools, his grandchildren attended private schools in Malaysia and abroad.
“They do speak the national language but their kind of schooling widens the gap between races as well as between the rich and poor,” he lamented.
“National schools were supposed to bring us all together as a nation.”
He goes into the history of education in the country, what was happening at the dawn of independence in 1957 and what was supposed to happen but didn’t.
He warns that the return to Malay in the teaching of mathematics and science would be a loss of knowledge for the nation and would not be good for the poor.
English schools at the time of independence, noted Mahathir, were attended by all ethnic groups. “Apart from racial separation because of the ethnic language-based schools, we now see a separation of rich children and poor children,” he reiterated in his blog posting.
He said that nothing in the Federal Constitution provided for vernacular schools and maintaining them was a political decision.
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