9 October 2019

Press Statement by MCA Youth Education Consultative Committee Chairperson Ng Sing Phing

Single-stream education not magic formula to national unity

MCA Youth will never see eye to eye to the resolution presented during the Malay Dignity Congress to scrap the Constitutionally-protected multi-stream education system. In fact, we highly doubt a single-stream school system would be the panacea to all existing racial woes in our country.

Proponents of the abolition of vernacular schools are the key to national unity, and by following that train of thought, all Malay students who obtained their education from national schools ought to be indivisible.

However, observations from the current Malay political scene show otherwise. These Malay students who graduated from sekolah kebangsaan all have their very own political party of choice; be it Bersatu, DAP, PKR, Amanah, UMNO or PAS.

Let us also step outside our borders and take a good look at other single-race, single-religion countries with a single-stream education system. How successful have they been in promoting national unity amongst themselves? There are so many aspects that we need to consider. 

In essence, having a single-stream national school system does not necessarily equates national unity. The Congress itself — attended by individuals with widely different political convictions despite most graduating from national schools — is a walking contradiction to the ill-conceived notion that vernacular schools are our greatest impediments to national unity. 

Moreover, those who constantly bayed for the abolition of our multi-stream education system had never shown to be able to produce any concrete evidence on how vernacular schools challenged national unity.

As a matter of fact, curriculums in Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools are also drawn up by the Ministry of Education, and similarly instill values of patriotism and unity within their students. Critics will be hard-pressed to even locate a single racial extremist who is a product of these vernacular schools. 

Ng Sing Phing
MCA Youth Education Consultative Committee Chairperson

-MCA online-