My thoughts on vernacular schools and my disappointment of not having that mixed environment for my children

The thing I used to love about my schooling days is the friends I made. Friends that until today I keep in touch with, some we still meet up from time to time and thanks to social media, most of my school friends are my virtual friends. During those days, all races would go to the Sekolah Kebangsaan (National school) and looking back at my official class photo, 60% were Chinese with the rest Malay and Indians (I was in the best class). Yet, at the time I never noticed race. They were simply my classmates.

Then I returned to Malaysia in 2010 and was adamant to send all of my kids to Sekolah Kebangsaan rather than private schools. I wanted them to experience the things that I experienced but it was a shock to me. The Sekolah Kebangsaan was filled with one-race only, at most 90% were from the Malay ethnicity. I couldn’t understand how as a nation, we became like this. I thought 60 years on from independence, we would have more unity, be more integrated and more understanding of one another’s culture and heritage but instead we have become more race-centric than ever before.

I started to do my own little research to find out when or how this happened and this was my startling conclusion.

http://anotherbrickinwall.blogspot.my/2008/12/abolish-vernacular-schoools-mukhriz.html

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/09/06/mca-dont-repeat-mistake-of-eradicating-english-schools/

https://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/11/188199/mca-appeals-najib-establishment-more-chinese-vernacular-schools

https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/thinking-liberally/2016/09/27/vernacular-schools-not-the-problem-please-keep-element-of-choice-for-both-parents-and-students/

You will find a lot of arguments and counter arguments on pros and cons of vernacular schools but in truth, the real political struggle in maintaining and promoting vernacular schools were championed by the MCA.

Lim Kit Siang himself, it seems was opposed to vernacular schools.

https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2011/06/09/vernacular-education-in-malaysia/

First of all, let’s look at the origins of vernacular schools and the vision of our leaders who set up Malaysia in 1955.

HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Malaysia

You can read about it here but the main point I wanted to take from this is that Vernacular schools was created by the British but when Malaysia achieved independence, we needed to form a national identity with a standardized national curriculum. There were those who disagreed and wanted English to be the medium. Why English? That is not our natural language but we needed a language for communication therefore, Malay and English become the main stream language.

Now, let’s go back to The Razak Report which was agreed in 1956 and is the basis of the education system in Malaysia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razak_Report

Briefly, the Malaysian education system provides for Malay and English (National school), Chinese and Tamil (Vernacular) schools at primary school level and Malay and English schools at secondary school level. (Other schools such as Islamic schools, madrasah are all either privately owned, charity or after school err…school and NOT part of the National curriculum). Other aspects of the Razak report states the formation of a single system of national education, commencement of a Malayan-orientated curriculum, concept of single system of evaluation for all and recognition of the objective of making Bahasa Malaysia the main medium of instruction. 

The main argument of those who support vernacular school is the fear of erosion of the culture of a particular race in Malaysia. I absolutely agree. In fact, I believe that not only the Chinese or Indian culture that has been eroded but also the Malay culture has been eroded due to influence of Western culture as well as Islamic extremism. Therefore, my personal view is to support the preservation of culture (the good aspects of culture such as language, heritage, history, music, traditional dances, clothing etc. but not the bad aspects of culture).

However, Malaysians hold something in common. We share a common history and irrespective of wherever your ancestors come from, we fought for the independence of this country and this week, we fought for the choice of the people, to get rid of corruption and restore the rule of law with a different government. 

My question IS VERNACULAR SCHOOL THE ONLY WAY WE CAN THINK OF FOR PRESERVING OUR CULTURE?

I don’t think so. In fact, I would imagine 60 years since independence we should have moved forward by having Malay and English as a proficient language as well as Chinese (Mandarin) or Tamil in all schools. Our children should grow up being trilingual if not more. Even for those who support Islamic school, we can provide all children with opportunity to take either Mandarin, Tamil or Arabic.

In National schools, the Muslim children learn Islamic studies while the other children learn Moral studies, why can’t the other children learn about their own culture, heritage or religion at the same time? Perhaps, it might be a bit complicated because some are Christians, some Buddhist, some Sikh and some Hindus hence, perhaps these could be integrated into cultural classes and parents can choose which is more suitable for their children. If a vernacular school is teaching a particular ‘culture’ to the children I am sure this can be incorporated into National schools to cater for those same children.

The other argument is that National schools are becoming too Islamic and making those from other religions uncomfortable. In a multiracial society, we do not need to force a religion upon others. However, Islam is the official religion of this country and during my days in school, I doubt Islam became overtly visible in schools as it is today. If we need to splatter prayers on school buildings then perhaps we could include some Chinese or Indian writings on the walls as well. That is a part of becoming a mature society.

I will write a different blog on Islamic education system because it is too much to write here.

The most important argument is just think back to your school days, our friends and the time we spent in schools make us whom we are today. We need one another. Every race in Malaysia contributes to the development and the shaping of positive attitude and thinking of our future generation. Our children need healthy competition. Not too much or they will suffer from tremendous stress and not too little or they will become complacent. All the different races are there to keep the balance.

Honestly, I do not have an answer or a solution but simply my thoughts and view on the matter. I do hope that the new government will foster a better race relations for all Malaysians to get to know one another and be friends again.