Joint Statement Released by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

March 18, 2020

Bachelor Degree of Teaching Programme (PISMP) Opens for UEC Applicants—

Dong Jiao Zong Urges UEC Holders to Actively Apply

1. The Ministry of Education will intake its Bachelor Degree of Teaching Programme (henceforth PISMP-UEC) 2020 candidates from UEC holders from March 23 to March 31. Dong Jiao Zong reckons that this programme is specially opened to UEC holders with SPM certificate. Therefore, interested candidates are urged to browse the official website of the Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia (http://ipgm.moe.edu.my/), and apply directly on March 23 online (https://pismp.moe.gov.my/). Applicants are advised not to purchase Application Code in Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) and fill up the form in the Unit Pengambilan Universiti (UPU). According to the requirements set forth by the Ministry of Education, UEC applicants should not exceed 20 years of age (on June 30, 2020) and get distinction in Bahasa Melayu and English, pass History in the SPM and earn three extinctions in the UEC.
2. Ever since the MOE commences its intake for PISMP-UEC in February, Dong Jiao Zong has been keeping an eye closely to ensure if the government continues running the said programme during the political turbulence to assure its continuity. Therefore, with the formation of the new Cabinet and the signing in of the new Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, Jiao Zong had taken the initiative to remind Datuk Mah of the PISMP-UEC 2020 intake and beseeched him to see to the matter. Dong Jiao Zong is relieved to learn that the said intake for UEC holders will begin next week and thus herewith encourages interested UEC holders to apply actively to dedicate their bit to the advancement of Chinese education on this soil. Under the extant system, teachers with Bachelor degree can enjoy an extra RM2,300 in their starting salary, putting other government servant allowances together, the monthly salary for a fresh teacher is RM3,000.00, let alone enjoying the various welfare and benefits in the person of a government servant.
3. Dong Jiao Zong understands that the PISMP-UEC has been opened since 2011, and 20 vacancies are allocated for Chinese teaching posts in Chinese vernacular school across the country. Attributed to various reasons, the vacancies unfortunately have never been filled totally. That said, Dong Jiao Zong hereby beseeches all MICSS, state members of Dong Zong and Chinese Schools Teacher Union to put more efforts in the propagation of this programme thus to encourage more UEC holders to teach in Chinese vernacular schools. Dong Jiao Zong will pay close attention to the UEC application matter; in case any difficulties arise in application, feel free to contact Jiao Zong (Email: [email protected] or WhatsApp to the official number 011-58524692). Meanwhile, Dong Jiao Zong also reminds those who had applied to similarly submit their information to Jiao Zong for follow-up matters.

Joint Statement Released by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

March 11, 2020

Corresponding to the governing policy of the National Alliance government henceforth practices, Dong Jiao Zong herewith forwards its views as follows:

1. After the National Alliance had grabbed the sovereignty in recent political turbulence, Tan Sri Dato Haji Muhyidin bin Haji Mohammad Yassin immediately declared himself the National Prime Minister and pronounced his list of cabinet ministers. The governing policy of this new government inevitably becomes the focus of the nation.
2. Dong Jiao Zong urges the new Minister of Education Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin to run his office from panoramic and professional aspects and interact with non-government organisations such as Dong Jiao Zong, academic institutions, pundits and experts proactively as well as putting their heads together for the formation of appropriate education policies and measures thus to treat all vernacular schools equally for the promotion of quality and competitiveness in national education.
3. Dong Jiao Zong beseeches the Minister of Education to square up and resolve the besetting problems faced by Chinese primary schools and national-type Chinese secondary schools such as the shortage of teachers, the systemisation of appropriation and construction and relocation of national-type Chinese primary schools as well as the provision of proactive support for the development of MICSS. Besides, the Ministry of Education also needs to formulate and publish the regulations of school Board of Directors under the education Act 1996, properly settle the Jawi Scripts units argument in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools and the lawsuit accusing Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools’ existence as violation of constitution thus to ensure the sustainable existence and development of all vernacular schools in the country to safeguard her multicultural constituent, prosperity and social harmony and integration.
4. Dong Jiao Zong also implores the government to disclose the UEC Task Force Report and formally recognise and accept the UEC.

Joint Statement by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

25 February 2020

Stop sordid political maneuvering

Follow the people’s wishes in building our nation

With regard to the current political developments in our country, Dong Zong and Jiao Zong express deep concern and issue our statement as follows:

1. Dong Jiao Zong sternly denounces some opportunist politicians in the country who are fond of power struggle, putting their personal benefits above the interest of the people and the nation, going to all extremes to pursue their ends and causing the country to be trapped in unprecedented turmoil and conflicts. If such a trend is not put to a stop, it will definitely ruin the developments in our country.

2. Dong Jiao Zong strongly opposes the move by any political party to form a government via the back-door plot because this is not only against the spirit of democracy but also a betrayal of the people’s wishes. It is void of political ethics and must be criticized and rejected by the people in the country.

3.Dong Jiao Zong opines that only by immediately dissolving the parliament and returning the rights to the people for holding a fresh general election will it be possible to resolve the current political chaos. We have to reassemble the strength of the people in the entire nation and the resources of the society for developing and building our nation.

Joint Statement by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

7 February 2020

Revival of Vision School Concept should be opposed

Pupils Integration for Unity Plan should be enhanced

Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Education Tun Mahathir recently said that he hoped to implement the Vision School Concept throughout the country. In this regard, Dong Jiao Zong wishes to respond as follows:

(1)Dong Jiao Zong strongly opposes the Vision School Programme and reiterates the need to safeguard the multi-stream school education system in Malaysia. We emphasise our objection to the Vision School Programme not because we want to “segregate” students of various ethnic groups or we are against unity of the people. Instead, we are of the view that the original concept of the programme is based on the spirit of “the ultimate objective” as mentioned in the Razak Report 1956, i.e. converting Malaysia’s multi-stream schools into single-stream schools with Bahasa Malaysia used as the standard medium of instruction.

(2)Dong Jiao Zong maintains that it is completely not in accordance with the facts to allege that “multi-stream schools hinder unity of the people”. Multi-stream schools exist for upholding the principle of mother tongue education. Although schools of various streams use different languages as their media of instruction, their syllabuses are all drawn up and executed in an integrated manner by the country’s Ministry of Education such that the teaching and learning involve the same knowledge and value perspectives. At the same time, schools of various streams are open to parents of all ethnic groups so that they can freely enroll their children to study in these schools. In Chinese primary schools for example, non-Chinese pupils now make up about 18 percent of the total number of pupils. This is evidence that multi-stream schools do not hinder unity of the people.

(3)Dong Jiao Zong gives full support to activities for promoting communications and unity among students of various ethnic groups. In particular, in recent years, we have actively promoted and organised various series of cross-ethnic activities with students of various ethnic groups from different types of schools invited to take part. At the same time, Dong Jiao Zong urges the authorities concerned to strengthen and consistently carry out the widely accepted Pupils Integration for Unity Plan (RIMUP) which seeks to promote interaction among pupils of multi-stream schools through different types of activities. With this, we do not need to revive the Vision School Programme that had been rejected by the people.

Joint Statement by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

3 February 2020

Concrete evidence for failure of PPSMI

Not advisable to revive an old policy

On 30 January 2020, Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Education Tun Mahathir had a special meeting with management officers of the Ministry of Education. He was reported to have said in the meeting that the teaching of Science and Maths in English (PPSMI) policy might be revived. In this regard, Dong Jiao Zong wishes to respond as follows:

(1) We do recognise the urgency of improving the standards of English language as well as science and maths among our students. However, based on the lessons learnt from the failure of PPSMI implemented previously, it is evident that haste makes waste and such a policy is definitely not feasible. Education is a professional endeavour that impacts on an entire generation and if the government insists on reviving such a policy that contradicts the principles of education, it will definitely impact on the educational developments in our country. In implementing any measure, the Ministry of Education needs to adopt a realistic and practical approach, give due attention to results of surveys, studies as well as analyses carried out and respect professional decisions.

(2) In 2003, despite strong protests from the people, the government insisted on implementing PPSMI. However, after a six-year implementation period, the Ministry of Education eventually admitted that the policy had not only failed to raise the students’ standard of the English language in general, but had also led to lower standards of science and maths. The ministry was thus forced to abolish the policy. In recent years, the standards of science and maths among students in our country had seen a drastic fall. The performances of our students in international assessment tests such as PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) were far behind the international standards. Some scholars had pointed out that these were the aftermaths of PPSMI implemented years ago. Following the abolishment of this inappropriate policy, the PISA assessment 2018 showed that Malaysian students’ average scores in science and maths were better as compared with the past. All these had proven that PPSMI had harmed the students’ performances in science and maths. It is thus evident that PPSMI is not only in conflict with the excellent strengths of mother tongue education as advocated by UNESCO but the relevant international authoritative assessment results had also proven that PPSMI is flawed and unfavourable for students’ learning.

(3) Many knowledgeable personalities have pointed out that government schools in Malaysia are seeing a downtrend in their standards and therefore, education reforms are imperative. With the prevalence of artificial intelligence, education reforms in various countries in the world have changed their directions by stressing on people-centred approach as well as giving attention to the students’ humanistic quality and personality development. In addition, the syllabus contents were also revamped to emphasize the nurturing of creative thinking, high thinking abilities and interdisciplinary learning. Malaysia’s education reform concepts should not remain at the notion of rejuvenating the country through industries as advocated in the last century, and neither should we invest our education reform resources on PPSMI that had been proven to have failed. As such, Dong Jiao Zong urges the Pakatan Harapan government to identify as soon as possible a Minister of Education who is visionary about education policies and has a good grab of the current trends in educational developments around the world. Until that is done, it is not suitable to hastily implement any major education policy.

(4) Dong Jiao Zong calls upon the Ministry of Education to ensure that before announcing any major policy, it should meet as many relevant non-governmental organisations, scholars and experts as possible for consultation, discussion and gathering different opinions. It should not just make revelations via the media as this would cause unnecessary worries for teachers, parents and students. We also wish to remind the Pakatan Harapan government to ensure that their Cabinet meetings should reflect the views of the people and respect professionalism in the education field in order to carefully consider and make sound decisions on this controversial policy.

Statement by Dong Zong

21 January 2020

Dong Jiao Zong has never opposed Jawi script

It is striving to resolve impasse through dialogues

In a recent media interview, Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng criticised some Chinese organisations for advocating pluralism but opposing Jawi script, leading to rising level of repulsion in the Malay community. He also claimed that such a trend was set off by the unwise move of the Chinese organisations. Dong Zong does not agree with such remarks made by the Minister and we hope that he can really understand the principles and stands adopted by the Chinese and Indian communities with regard to this issue so that such a problem could be resolved in a realistic and practical manner.

Dong Zong wishes to reiterate that pupils in Chinese and Tamil primary schools have to learn three languages. We certainly hope that the pupils can enhance their learning of Bahasa Malaysia and all along we have never opposed Jawi script per se. What Dong Jiao Zong strongly opposes is the teaching of Jawi script in Chinese and Tamil primary school based on the following reasons: (1) to avoid adding to the pupils’ burden of learning at school; (2) to safeguard the sovereign rights of the boards of directors of Chinese and Tamil primary schools; and (3) to advocate a pluralistic approach in education policies. We have also proposed an alternative formula, i.e. requesting the Ministry of Education to refer to the existing Standard Five Bahasa Malaysia syllabus for Chinese and Tamil primary schools and introduce in a pluralistic manner the calligraphic arts of the different communities.

Earlier on, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Mujahid met representatives from various organisations including Dong Jiao Zong on 9 January 2020. Subsequently he said he had come to understand that Dong Jiao Zong is not a racist organisation and neither is it opposing Jawi script; instead, what it does not agree is the way of implementing the relevant policy. As such, there is a need for frank and sincere dialogues.

Should New Malaysia continue to waste time and resources in populist sentiments or should it forge ahead through democratic dialogues? In choosing between these two options, the wisdom of the politicians and government officers will be put to test. Dong Jiao Zong had on 2 January 2020 submitted to the Ministry of Education our joint statement as regards the Joint Congress for the Chinese Community scheduled to be held on 28 December 2019 but was forced to be cancelled. Since then, we have maintained close contacts with the Ministry of Education and the parties on both sides of the political divide for organising dialogues regarding the teaching of Jawi script, anticipating to resolve differences of opinion through dialogues. We hope that DAP will join our discussion. We also call upon the authorities concerned to adopt an accommodating attitude in continuing to dialogue with us and to use their utmost sincerity to prevent our society from being torn asunder. Only then will our country achieve sound and steady developments to break away from the impasse.