DAP will organise series of conferences and seminars throughout the country to establish a national consensus on a New Deal for Mother-tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan for adoption by Parliament

(Penang, Friday):  DAP will organise a  series of conferences and seminars  throughout the country to establish a national consensus on a New Deal for Mother-tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan for adoption by Parliament.

This nation-wide series of “New Deal for Mother Tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan” will begin next month and it will be an opportunity to give substance to the principle that in a democracy, it is the people and not the Ministers or MPs who are the bosses.

I have tentatively suggested three important elements in the New Deal for Chinese education, namely
 

• Build 250 new Chinese primary schools, or 50 new schools a year, under the Eighth Malaysia Plan.
• Government recognition of Unified Examinations  Certificate (UEC) of Chinese Independent  Secondary Schools.
• RM1 billion special allocation for the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and the 1,200 Chinese primary schools to be paid out in the next five years in recognition of their contribution to nation-building.

It should be up to the nation-wide series of conferences and seminars on the “New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan” to finalise the contents,  putting additional items to provide a comprehensive new deal for Chinese education in the next five years, such as on adequate teacher-training provision.

After the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a MCA Minister said that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had directed the Education Ministry to build new  Chinese primary schools according to need under the Eighth Malaysia Plan.

If there is such a new policy to build new Chinese primary schools according to need, then why is the Barisan Nasional government so stubborn in refusing to allow the original  SJK © Damansara to be retained in addition to the building of a new school in Tropicana, Petaling Jaya?

Talk of a new government policy under the Eighth Malaysia Plan to build new Chinese primary schools according to need is meaningless when the government is unable to specifically state how many new Chinese primary schools would be built in the next five years.

This is why I hope that the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP, together with other Barisan Nasional parties will sit down together with the DAP and other Barisan Alternative parties to reach a consensus on a New Deal for Mother-tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan for adoption by Parliament at its next meeting beginning on March 19, 2001.

(23/2/2001)