Kuantan to get Chinese vernacular school
UPDATED @ 02:37:39 PM 27-07-2012
KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — Putrajaya approved today the building of a new independent Chinese school in Kuantan, more than two months after a mammoth rally in the city and ahead of a repeat this Sunday in Segamat, Johor.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Wee Ka Siong announced today that the new school would modelled after the Chong Hwa Independent High School in the national capital and offer both the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), accepted by most Chinese education institutions, and the national SPM school-leaving examinations.
Wee said the proposed school with offer both the UEC and SPM examinations. — File picThe move is seen to be a feather in the cap for the MCA, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s Chinese party, in the run-up to a key general election due soon.
There are currently 60 Chinese independent schools in Malaysia, but none in Pahang.
Education is a major issue among the Chinese community and is set to be a crucial issue in the run-up to national polls, speculated to be called in September after the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.
The MCA, which professes to champion the rights of the Chinese community, had pushed the Education Ministry to fast-track the application submitted by the Kuala Lumpur Chung Hwa independent high school on July 18 after Chinese educationists lead a massive demonstration numbering some 4,000 people in the east coast city last May 20.
Dong Zong, an umbrella body representing Chinese schools, and other Chinese education groups and associations in Johor, long seen to be a BN stronghold, have said they will hold another rally at the Padang Kampung Abdullah in Segamat this Sunday to revive the Seg Hwa Independent Chinese High School or set up a new Chinese independent school in their town.
The organisers expect to draw at least 2,000 supporters to the planned rally.
The Segamat Chinese community has been lobbying for a Chinese independent high school since the 1980s, after the original Seg Hwa vernacular school was turned into a national secondary school that enforced Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction following the introduction of the Education Act in 1961.
The Chinese community has held two major rallies this year to voice out their demands in relation to education in Mandarin.
