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Statement by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong on the DAP seminar in English on education in the k-economy. 28 May, 2001.

Malaysians talk about education. This refletcs the current trend. We have to do something about it.

We realize that there is a sea change in politics and economy of Malaysia. One major factor for it is education. Malaysians of all races are more educated and more aware of the world.

In the Eighth Malaysia Plan, the Government intends to increase the number of graduates from public universities from 170,794 to 244,527 a year. Maintaining standard and educating more people are correct.
However, we are facing various problems including the quota system, the quality of education, the emphasis on information and communications technology, ICT and the teaching of languages such as Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and English.

TEACHING OF LANGUAGES

Although the Education Ministry introduces a new system of teaching English starting from primary one for all streams, we are uncertain how far it can go. Are we ready for it?

In the k-economy, we also have to review the teaching of BM, Mandarin and Tamil. Not only is English important in Internet, Mandarin is getting more prominent. We have not anticipated this.

The seminar in English on Education in the K-economy on 30 May, 2001 at 8.30 PM, Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur, will be officiated by Lim Kit Siang and chaired by Lim Guan Eng. The speakers will be Professor Datuk Ibrahim Bajunid, Mr Lum Kin Tuck and Dr Tan Seng Giaw.

Many questions will be discussed. For example, how do we improve the standard of English among Malaysians while keeping their proficiency in BM? How do we overcome the mistake from 1970 to 1982 during which the Government destroyed the teaching of English in the country?

Dr Tan Seng Giaw