YOURSAY 'If the national education system is really good, there would be no reason to close the Tamil and Chinese schools. They will die a natural death.'

Don: Abolish vernacular schools for unity's sake

Sunnyd: The only reason why the national schools lack participation of all races is because it has been hijacked by little Napoleans.

If the national education system is really good, there would be no reason to close the Tamil and Chinese schools. They will die a natural death because people will want the best education for their children.

Rakyat Malaysia: There are more and more Malay and Indian parents sending their kids to Chinese schools. Do you know why they don't sent them to "kebangsaan" schools? It is all about standards and quality.

Ozzie Jo: I remember when I was in school back in the early 70s, our school canteen had seven different stalls run by Malay, Indian and Chinese traders and we could pick our choices from the stalls and sit down together for our meal with our friends from different races.

There were no meat in any of the meals then because I think we couldn't afford a more "nutritionally balanced" snack. Neither were there any halal signs.

The stalls sold all types of food but no one questioned whether they were halal as the Chinese and Indian operators knew the Malay kids would never patronise their stalls again if they sold stuff that were not.

These days, some schools ban non-Malay students from the canteens if they brought food from home lest by simply opening their lunch packs, they would contaminate the air in the canteen.

This is not a valid excuse for vernacular schools, but certainly to highlight that the simple act of eating can sometimes be a divider.

Awas: I am a 60-year-old man who had gone through a mixed-race school until Form 5 and in retrospective I found the mixed school taught me about friendships with my fellow Chinese and Indian friends, some of whom had become my best friends.

One of them, by the name Lim Boon Sai with whom I shared common interest in watching Hindustani films which were hugely popular among all races, especially the Malays in mid-60s.

Nowadays I lament how my children had missed those opportunities to mix with Malaysians of Chinese and Indian origins.

I would like to echo my former great teacher, Mr Tony Sibert, whom I met during our old boys gathering (St Michael, Alor Star) sometime years ago, in which he said we should ask the government to reinstate single medium schools for all Malaysians. And I could not agree more.

James1067: Well. before you do that can you make the national schools are on a level-playing field? Can you make sure that the quality of education or the degrees are recognised worldwide?

Can you separate politicians from the education system? Can you make sure that each student will be given equal opportunities, irrespective of race?

Education is one of the stepping stones for a child to better himself or herself in society and parents will spent time and finance to make sure their children will have a better future. What assurances can you give that their children will have an education system where meritocracy is valued?

And make sure that all the children, irrespective of race, will have places in the colleges and universities to complete their education. Then you might see the return of the Chinese, Indians and even the Malays who have lost faith in the national education system, return to these schools.

Mike1963: Actually I got no objection against vernacular school or single stream schools. The reason I send my kids to vernacular school is because the teachers and the quality of education is better than national schools.

Anybody who do not agree can try it out and you will see the difference.

Anonymous #44199885: Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) pro-chancellor Abdul Rahman Arshad misses the point by a mile.

The reason parents send their children to vernacular schools is because the BN government has failed to provide good quality education to our children. This failure has been continuing for so long that our young people are no longer competitive in the global market.

Vernacular schools do not contribute to racism. It is BN politicians, and sadly now the proponent of 1Malaysia, PM Najib Razak himself, who are promoting it. Racism is the product of the politics of Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan.

Our greatest national loss is the failure of the Alliance to see the wisdom of Onn Jaafar, a truly great man, in pushing for a multiracial party. Never have I seen such a bunch of sore winners.

Paul Warren: All these very clever people say nice and wonderful things. But they forget one thing. The Chinese and Indians basically have rejected the national schools as they are believed to be centres for indoctrination of values and standards that are far from acceptable.

You have religious teachers going in there and telling Muslim students not to "friend" with their non-Muslim classmates. You have students come home to tell their parents that their teachers are lazy.

The students at primary level speak better English than their English teachers. This is the reason, more than anything else, why parents do not want to send their kids to national schools.

What4: It is not the school that unite people. School is for obtaining knowledge no matter what school you go.

It is the poison that spread into the people's mind not to unite so that they can divide and rule. Can't you see the people are now united against fraud, corruption and inefficiency?

Speechless: I am surprised that someone purported well-educated could come up with such a stupid remark that links unity or the lack of unity to vernacular schools.

The current divisive society we now live in is caused solely by politicians and half-baked academics who played the race card and are brainless enough to be unable to diagnose the root cause.

Good grief, first we have an idiotic and bigoted ex-judge and now we have to deal with a brain-dead chancellor.

Clever Voter: It wasn't too long ago Najib was crisscrossing the country promising all sort of goodies to everyone, including protection and recognition of vernacular education.

Let's ask MCA where they stand on this, or for that matter, let's ask the PM.

Isn't calling to abolish vernacular schools seditious?

Umno is waging politics of revenge

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