COMMENT | The education minister needs to be reminded of the importance of the optional Dual-Language Programme (DLP), and how and why it was conceived. Ministers and directors-general come and go but parents stay.

It was in early 2015 that the Economic Council, chaired by the then prime minister, demanded a radical approach towards enhancing English proficiency, having witnessed the damaging effects on youth towards employment.

Immediately, the Education and Strategic Reform Initiatives Human Capital Development of Performance Measurement and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) under the Prime Minister’s Office, now corporatised, was assigned to explore and recommend that desperately needed radical approach.

An English syndicated lab was set up and close to 100 stakeholders were invited to participate in finding that radical angle.

High-ranking officials from the Education Ministry, state education departments, district education offices, industry players including...