School of Thought

The Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua campaign initiated and supported by several bloggers is too radical.

You shouldn’t abolish vernacular schools, because Malaysians should have the right (if they don’t already) to educate their children in their mother tongue.

Having said that, I strongly believe that government-funded, government-run schools should only provide secular education, with the national language as the medium of instruction.

As far as I’m concerned, religious instruction and education is the responsiblity of parents, not the government.

Religious schools should be privately-run and privately-funded. Same with vernacular schools.

We have a national language so national schools should use it as the medium of instruction. This is not only logical, it is reasonable as well.

National schools are ultimately funded by Malaysian taxpayers. It is only fair that these schools use the language that is common to all Malaysians, the national language.

However, the Constitution of Malaysia provides for all those things that I have suggested be limited; it allows the government to establish and fund religious and vernacular schools.

I TOOK a look at the Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua petition.

By and large, the petition squarely blames vernacular schools for inculcating individuals with thinking that is disruptive to inter-ethnic harmony and unity.

I cannot agree with that.

There are also such individuals among those who did not go to vernacular schools.

If these people went to school at all, it would have been to schools where the national language was the medium of instruction.

It is not the medium of instruction at schools that should be faulted but the fact that too many of our children do not learn, play, and eat together. Not anymore.

Such a pity, as our children will reap what we sow.