Joint Statement Released by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

January 16, 2021

Questionnaire Survey to Be Abandoned Urged—

‘No’ to Extant Unary Teaching Model

 

The MOE recently directed Chinese vernacular schools to collect views on Jawi script learning from their Grade Four students’ parents to decide whether to practice the implementation. As a matter of fact, the finding from the survey conducted by the MOE in 2020 indicated that 1,262 (97-3 percent) out of all the 1,297 Chinese vernacular schools nationwide was against the Jawi script learning implementation which had already shown their stance.  The Chinese community also declared for several times their disagreement on the administration of questionnaire survey for the second time and the inappropriateness of the said implementation. In view of this, Dong Jiao Zong strongly recommends the MOE to abandon the questionnaire survey. In the meantime, Dong Zong advises all school boards, parent teacher associations, parents and non-governmental organisations to stand firm against the Jawi scripts learning implementation by saying ‘No’ to this unary teaching model.

Meanwhile, the survey conducted by Dong Zong last year showed that 1,275 Chinese vernacular schools (98.23 percent) were against the Jawi script unary teaching which corroborated the MOE survey. The finding has markedly reflected the decision of the parents. If the MOE were to once again conduct questionnaire survey on the matter, it would be equivalent to recommitting the same error. This act not only is a waste of administration resource, but also implies the intention to divide racial unity and thus to the core irksome.

Dong Jiao Zong hereby solemnly urges the MOE to put the contentious Jawi script learning implementation aside and abandon the questionnaire survey immediately. Simultaneously, Dong Jiao Zong also urges the school boards, parent teacher association and parents of Chinese vernacular schools to attend to this matter closely as well as rejecting the extant Jawi script unary learning model by insisting on a diversified approach corresponding to the multiracial inherence of the country.

Education is a public interest and it intertwines intricately to the future of the nation. Dong Jiao Zong reiterates, the MOE needs to enforce citizen participation by convening all stakeholders including Chinese and Tamil cultural and educational organisations to set up a multilingual teaching committee such that public voices would be heard through the cooperation between the government and the general public in terms of public participation in decision making, assessment and supervision of educational policies.