CPS says this will be the first in a series of rallies nationwide if the government continues sidelining parents in education matters.
About 5,000 disgruntled parents from across Peninsular Malaysia are expected to gather at Dataran PJ on March 10 to protest the “deplorable” state of the education system and repeat their call for the PPSMI to be brought back.
At a press conference this morning, the Concerned Parents Selangor’s (CPS) coordinator, Shamsudin Hamid, said that the rally was a peaceful assembly and he was confident that obtaining a permit would not be an issue.
“We are not going to bring politics into this issue,” he stated. “Our intent isn’t to arm-twist the government ahead of the general election. The only thing that matters is the future of our children.”
Yet he issued a subtle reminder to the government that parents were also voters and in this case, there were a total of 280,000 voters supporting the return of the PPSMI.
According to Shamsudin, 30,000 letters have been mailed to the government from Penang, Malacca and Selangor.
In addition, 250,000 parents had submitted online votes in favour of PPSMI. However, he said, the government has yet to acknowledge their voices.
“If nothing moves after the March 10 rally, we will hold similar rallies in Malacca, Penang, Perak and Sabah,” Shamsudin said. “What we are afraid of is a hidden agenda at the top level of the government.”
He explained that these fears were based on the fact that no intellectual or academic reasons have been given for the abolishment of the PPSMI and that the government’s explanations had revolved around “rhetoric and propaganda”.
Simplistic conclusion
“We parents deplore the politicising of the PPSMI issue and the accompanying narrow nationalistic progaganda that to promote PPSMI is being disrespectful to the integrity of the national language,” Shamsudin said.
“Far worse is the simplistic conclusion by the Education Minister (Muhyiddin Yassin) that English is to be blamed for students’ disinterest in science. This problem had already existed when the subject was taught in Bahasa Malaysia.”
PPSMI has been replaced with the policy on Upholding Bahasa Malaysia and Strengthening the English Language (MBMMBI), and Shamsudin pointed out that both the policies served different purposes.
Stressing that CPS is not against MBMMBI, he said that the policy was aimed at upholding the national language while PPSMI was a method of learning Science and Maths.
Shamsudin added that while parents appreciate the recent setting up of an Education Review Panel (ERP), they also questioned why the panel was not set up before the decision to abolish the PPSMI was enforced.
“The review panel should be upgraded to a national agenda like the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and the Government Transformation Programme (GTP),” he said.
“After all, if the government can take a financial expert and make him the deputy finance minister then it can do the same for education. There are many capable scholars who are able to set a comprehensive road map on education with definitive milestones.”
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