PETALING JAYA: Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz said the government should look into getting retired teachers with English teaching proficiency and pay them higher salaries equivalent to Singaporean standards.
The former trade and industry minister said the teachers' training and school syllabus should be revised to include English language proficiency.
"To make it painless, no need to make English a subject as part of overall examinations but just one subject by itself as a language," said Rafidah in a statement on Thursday (June 13).
"While there is nothing wrong in cooperating with another country like Singapore, teachers from there have to be paid in Singapore dollars at the exchange rate of three and a half times more.
Rafidah added that the government should look into drawing up a long-term programme for elevating English proficiency standards among the young.
Rafidah was commenting on the statement of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday (June 12) who said Singapore teachers may be sent to teach English and other subjects in Malaysia
The Prime Minister said he discussed the matter with his Singapore counterpart, Lawrence Wong in a bilateral meeting on Wednesday (June 12).
