‘Parents and schools should decide DLP issue’

KUALA LUMPUR: Parents have the right to determine the type of education their children should get, say stakeholders.

Centre for Vernacular School Excellence director Arun Dorasamy said the Education Ministry must acknowledge the right of parents.

“As far as Tamil schools are concerned, we have 69 out of 529 Tamil schools running the Dual Language Programme (DLP), which is highly preferred by the parents. The ministry has to take this into consideration,” he said.

He called out the ministry’s purported move to abruptly introduce the new rule of having one non-DLP class in the criteria for schools to run the programme in the next academic year.

His comment comes after MCA Youth secretary-general Saw Yee Fung highlighted that DLP school principals had said they were informed by ministry officials of the new guidelines to be implemented next year.

Saw said, however, there have been no official documents or directives on the non-DLP class.

Arun claimed there are a number of schools that have fulfilled the requirements but have yet to be given a chance to hold DLP classes.

He said the idea of equating the proficiency of Bahasa Melayu to DLP is “not the way to go”.

“The proficiency of Bahasa Melayu in vernacular schools is on an upward trend,” he added.

SJK (T) Vivekananda Parent-Teacher Association chairman Vicknesan Ayapan said the Education Act itself states that parents have the right to determine how their children should be taught.

He also urged the ministry to see the bigger picture of how teaching Science and Mathematics in English can provide students with the opportunity to access education on a global stage.