76 SMJK get green light to use DLP next year

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 76 conforming secondary schools will be using the Dual Language Programme (DLP) next year.

Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon said 64 of these schools had just been approved by the Education Ministry to carry out the programme.

“The council had approached me and asked that the schools rejected last year be given the chance to use the DLP,” he told reporters after a meeting with the Malaysia Conforming Secondary Schools (SMJK) Development Council here yesterday.

He said there were 12 SMJK schools that were using the DLP this year and they would continue to do so.

Last year, 43 SMJK schools were rejected because they did not meet the Bahasa Melayu average score that was part of the criteria set for schools to carry out the DLP.

However, he said these schools had been using the “soft-landing approach” where they continued to use English for the Science and Mathematics subjects.

“This is why they have requested to continue using the language for these subjects,” he added.

Under the DLP, schools would be given the option to teach Science, Mathematics, Information Tech­nology and Communication, and Design and Technology in English or Bahasa Malaysia.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, when tabling Budget 2016, announced that the DLP would be offered in a total of 300 pilot schools.

Malaysia Conforming Secondary Schools Development Council ho­norary secretary Goh Boon Poh said this latest news was good for the parents who had been pushing hard for the DLP to be carried out in the SMJK schools.