Manyin flays Chong over remarks on circular to reps
KUCHING: Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen should come up with suggestions to help the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research in its efforts to improve the proficiency of English language in schools instead of politicising the issue.
Its minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin said it was uncalled for, for the state DAP chairman to describe the ministry’s recent circular calling for the cooperation of state elected representatives to support its initiative to improve the standard of English in schools as “ridiculous”.
“When my permanent secretary Datu Sudarsono ( Osman) asked if the circular should be issued to elected representatives from opposition parties, I told him that when it comes to education, any programmes on this should transcend political divide.
“Unfortunately, Chong said this is a ridiculous policy. But it is not a policy in the first place because we never issued a policy,” he told a press conference after chairing a meeting with state elected representatives on the proposal for merging low- enrolment schools hotel here yesterday.
He explained that the circular was just a request for the elected representatives to voluntarily adopt schools in their respective constituencies to improve English proficiency among students.
“This is totally voluntary and not compulsory, so Chong should not jump the gun and say it is ridiculous. In fact, I can say that it is a ridiculous comment from an elected representative,” he chided.
Manyin said if Chong was unhappy about adopting some schools, he had expected him to just remain quiet since it was not mandatory to follow the circular in the first place.
“We are not here to make a policy because this has to be done by the federal government as education is under the federal list. We are just here to complement what the federal Ministry of Education is doing.”
Asked whether he thinks Chong cares about the schools under his constituency, Manyin declined to comment but reiterated that the vocal opposition member should come up with suggestions instead.
“Work together with us on how to improve the proficiency and usage of English,” he said.
He opined that the reason for people here not speaking in English was due to the country’s medium of instruction being Bahasa Malaysia (BM).
“So it is only natural that students will communicate in BM since all subjects are taught in the language except for English.”
He also cited peer influence as another reason that deters students from trying to learn to speak English.
“If one student tries to speak English, the other students may try to ridicule his or her effort. This is what we call peer influence.”
Nevertheless, he said efforts must continue to ensure that the proficiency of English among students improve and to allow them to speak the language regardless if they are fluent or not.
“We should encourage them and just let them speak however they want as long as they try.
“Besides, we are not speaking the Queen’s English. What we should emphasise here is English communication,” he said.
Also present at the press conference were Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapa’ee and Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research permanent secretary Datu Sudarsono