PUTRAJAYA — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim clarified on Friday (June 14) that the government will not be employing English teachers from Singapore for Malaysian schools.

Instead, he explained that what he had suggested to Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during their meeting earlier in the week was for teachers in the city state to teach English to disadvantaged children in poor and rural areas.

Mr Anwar added that the scheme would be voluntary and fully funded by the Singaporean government.

“Bahasa Malaysia is the language of instruction and the official language,” Mr Anwar said at an event held at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre

“But we want to emphasise English, so I asked if there was a scheme from Singapore to help.

“We are not appointing teachers from Singapore. Listen first. Some are bashing this on social media, but the facts are wrong.

“What I discussed with the prime minister of Singapore is to organise an aid scheme, or to appoint volunteers who are paid by the Singaporean government to go to areas, especially in poor urban and rural areas, to teach English.”

Mr Anwar said that it is his mission to build good rapport with neighbouring countries.

“I want to build good relations between countries. We want to be good with Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, our important neighbours,” he said.

“During our discussion, we talked about the Johor economic zone, along with investment and trade, and I suggested using the initiative to build good relations, by encouraging graduates from Singapore to participate in a volunteer scheme teaching English in Malaysia. That’s our recommendation.”

Mr Anwar met with Singapore PM Wong on Wednesday during the latter’s two-day working visit to Malaysia. Among the topics discussed was the possibility of sending Singaporean teachers to Malaysia.

Presently, Johor and Singapore are already working on a joint education project with a new curriculum that involves the exchange of programmes and teacher training. MALAY MAIL