KUALA LUMPUR – A government backbencher has called for the establishment of a board to manage vernacular schools and called for the re-examination of school activities involving religious elements.
In Dewan Rakyat today, PKR’s Yuneswaran Ramaraj (Segamat-PH), said this in response to the recent Court of Appeals decision to allow Tamil and Chinese schools to continue operating in the country.
Yuneswaran said that he hoped for Tamil and Chinese schools would be managed by a board after claiming that the ministry’s image was tarnished by “irresponsible quarters”.
He also made these remarks following the recent controversy surrounding the holding of the Palestine Solidarity Week.
“We want the continuity of the unity government, and when (the concept of national) unity is tested in schools, it becomes very dangerous (for the government).
“(So), I request for the establishment of a special committee so that school programmes and activities, such as carnivals with religious elements, can be reviewed,” he said during the committee level debate session on the Supply Bill 2024 for the Education Ministry.
“I (also) hope for a board that is in charge of managing Tamil and Chinese schools, and takes full responsibility (for them as well).”
On November 23, Deputy Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister K. Saraswathy said that the Court of Appeal’s decision that vernacular schools are constitutional should halt future attempts to dispute their existence.
She said that the appellate court’s decision was historic, and an affirmation that schools using mother-tongue languages have legally existed since the nation’s independence.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling of Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bharu high courts that the use of Chinese and Tamil languages in vernacular schools does not violate the federal constitution. – November 27, 2023