Current syllabus contains factual errors and leaning in favour of a certain religious civilisation and belief, say concerned parents.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian parents have started an online petition to get the government to review the History syllabus in schools, claiming that the text is error-filled.
The petition, started on Feb 5, is available at the Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) website. It states that the current syllabus was filled with half-truths and failed to reflect fairly on the contribution of all races in developing the nation.
“The syllabus is also biased towards a certain religious civilisation and belief,” read the petition which has thus far garnered 361 signatures.
As History is vital in nurturing young minds, the petitioners also want the task of reviewing and rewriting the subject to be left to a panel of qualified historians from diverse racial backgrounds.
“The new syllabus must also be balanced in its view of major civilisations in the world and not contain too much emphasis on any particular civilisation or religion.
“It should record historical data accurately and give due recognition to the contributions of all races in the development our nation without any religious or political agenda attached,” read the petition.
Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that History will be made a compulsory subject for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination from 2013.
The MCA and DAP too had called upon Muhyiddin, who is also education minister to review of the syllabus citing ‘imbalanced’ account of the nation’s history.
Muhyiddin dismissed the calls and said the current syllabus will be used till 2017.
Currently, there is an ongoing hotly-debated issue on a controversial book, Interlok, that is used as a literature text for SPM.
Malaysian Indians are up in arms over the use of the word pariah and other derogatory insinuations against the community in tracing the history of the Indians in the country’s nation-building process.
The petition is available at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/reviewhistorysyllabusinmalaysia/
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