Chinese schools not going mainstream, says Mahdzir

KUALA LUMPUR: Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid (pic) has dismissed the possibility of Chinese vernacular schools being turned into mainstream schools in 10 years’ time.

Mahdzir said that although the ratio of non-Chinese students to Chinese students in vernacular schools was higher in some rural areas, in Sabah and Sarawak, the majority of the vernacular schools in the urban areas was still dominated by Chinese students.

“It is unlikely,” he told reporters after launching the Setiawangsa Umno division meeting yesterday.

He said this when commenting on a two-year research conducted by the National Education Advisory Council that revealed the possibility of Chinese schools turning into mainstream ones in 10 years’ time.

Recently, retired council member Prof Dr Teo Kok Seong told a news portal that national schools registered only 4% non-Malay students while the Chinese schools had 18% non-Chinese students.

Mahdzir said a study would be conducted on the findings of the report before any further action was taken on the matter.

He said the ministry was also looking at several other problems faced by Chinese vernacular schools, including the disproportionate ratio of teachers to students.

“We have schools with high number of students, schools with average number of students, and also schools with low number of students. Some schools have only three students with 15 teachers.

“The cost of operating a school is high, considering the wages that have to be paid to the teachers, for maintenance and security for a small number of students,” he said.

In the early years of independence, existing Chinese, Tamil and mission schools accepted government funding and were allowed to retain their medium of instructions on the condition that they adopt the national curriculum.

Chinese secondary schools were given the option of accepting government funding and change into national-type schools or remain Chinese and private without government funding.

Most of the schools accepted the change, although a few rejected the offer and came to be known as Chinese Independent High Schools. Shortly after the change, some of the national-type schools re-established their Chinese independent high school branches.

In the 1970s, in accordance with the national language policy, the Government began to change English-medium primary and secondary national-type schools into Malay-medium national schools.

The language change was made gradually starting from the first year in primary school, then the second year in the following year and so on. The change was completed by the end of 1982.