KUALA LUMPUR: All Malaysian students across different education streams – including international schools, religious schools and those under the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) stream – must sit for the SPM Bahasa Melayu and Malaysian History papers, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"This means that all education systems in the country must set and make Bahasa Melayu compulsory, according to the ministry's curriculum, including at SPM level.
"Whether in international schools, where many Malaysian children are enrolled, without exception must sit for the SPM Bahasa Melayu and Malaysian History," said the Prime Minister at the launch of the National Education Development Plan (RPN) 2026-2035 on Tuesday (Jan 20).
Anwar said the requirement would also apply to religious schools, including community religious schools and maahad fahfiz institutions, which have seen a rapid increase in enrolment nationwide.
"All government assistance is conditional. They may maintain their manhaj tarbiah and prescribed religious texts but religious schools and Maahad Tahfiz – which now have more than 400,000 students – must also teach Bahasa Melayu and Malaysian History," he said.
On the UEC stream, Anwar said this would no longer be an issue as most students already sit for SPM, including the Bahasa Melayu paper.
"Under current regulations, Bahasa Melayu and Malaysian History are compulsory for international schools, religious schools and all Chinese-stream or UEC schools.
"We accept them as long as these conditions are met," he said.
Anwar said the requirement applies uniformly across Malaysia's education system as part of efforts to strengthen the position of Malay as the national language while ensuring a shared foundation of national history among students.
He said the policy aligns with His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia's royal address at the opening of Parliament on Monday (Jan 19), which emphasised the importance of language in nation-building.
"Mastery of the Malay language should go beyond basic competence and must be strengthened as the lingua franca (common language) and language of knowledge," he said.
Anwar also called for significant improvement in the teaching and mastery of English, describing it as essential for Malaysia's economic future.
"While Malay is strengthened as the medium of instruction and language of knowledge, our focus on English proficiency must change.
"English must be given higher priority than it currently receives. Our children must master English as a second language, not learn and or be taught it half-heartedly," he said.
He said Malaysia's status as a trading nation makes English proficiency critical, citing the country's record trade performance.
"Malaysia has just broken a historical record, achieving RM3 trillion in trade for the first time.
"Mastery of English is essential to secure our children's future on the international stage, including in areas such as digital transformation, energy transition and artificial intelligence," he said.
Anwar added that national schools must also ensure teachers are available to support students who wish to learn additional languages, including Mandarin, Tamil and Arabic.
"Beyond Bahasa Melayu and English, students who wish to learn Mandarin, Tamil or Arabic as elective languages must be given that opportunity.
"The Education Ministry is obliged to provide sufficient teachers for these choices," he said.
He expressed hope that the new policy framework would finally bring an end to decades-long language debates in the country.
