Programme to connect races focuses on generating respect

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s Education Ministry is drawing up a module to conduct “Bina Bangsa” or nation-building programmes for vernacular primary schools to address the lack of interaction between races among school children.

Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid said the programme would probably be introduced next year, beginning with schools in the Klang Valley.

He said it was difficult to attract non-Malays to national schools because of the existence of vernacular schools catering to Chinese and Tamil-speaking students.

“It is hard to attract them to study at national schools because there are vernacular schools available,” he said. “We have allowed an education system with three streams since Merdeka 58 years ago.”

“If we talk about unity, nation-building, we must think of how we can get children from different racial backgrounds to meet and mingle.”

“It now means we must have a programme that is not selective but compulsory for kids in vernacular schools,” the minister told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview.

Malaysia’s public education system has schools that use the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, as the main medium of instruction, and vernacular schools which use mother-tongue languages, such as Mandarin and Tamil.

“Bina Bangsa” is meant to promote inter-racial relations among pupils from a young age, Mr Mahdzir added.

He said research done on Malaysian students showed many from different racial backgrounds would only meet each other after the age of 17 and when they attend college.

“Because of that, we want to let them meet over their six years in primary school, through leadership, cultural, sports and other programmes.

“Leadership programmes for the children, for example, can have the pupils from different types of schools all going to the seaside for the events. They will learn how to respect each other’s faiths and cultures. At least when an ustaz takes his pupils to ‘solat’ (pray), the non-Muslim children will know what it means and respect their Muslim peers’ practices.”

The newly-appointed minister took over the Education Ministry portfolio from Mr Muhyiddin Yassin, who was dropped from the post and the deputy premier post during a Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Najib Razak last month.

Mr Mahdzir said he was drawing up the nation-building module to benefit all races, not just the Malays. But the module must be something agreed upon by everyone, including the schools’ administration and parents, he added.

To roll out the module, he said the initial focus would target primary schools in the Klang Valley, and would be gradually extended to other states, including Sabah and Sarawak.

“I am not so worried about Sabah and Sarawak because they are already 1Malaysia,” he said, referring to the federal government’s slogan on national unity.

“In a school there, we can see pupils of different races and religions under one roof,” he added. MALAYSIAN INSIDER