Jawi on Chinese school signboards 'not a must'
It is not a compulsory for Chinese schools in Malacca to add Jawi inscriptions on their signboards, the Art Institute of Malaysia Malacca (ISMMA) says.
It is not a compulsory for Chinese schools in Malacca to add Jawi inscriptions to their signboards, the Art Institute of Malaysia Malacca (ISMMA) says.
Instead, Chinese schools are only "encouraged" to add the Jawi script to their signboards.
“We are encouraging. It is not compulsory,” ISMMA manager Mohd Nasruddin Abd Rahman said when contacted by Malaysiakini today.
Nasruddin was responding to the statement of the Malacca Chinese Education Progressive Association yesterday that the state Education Department was asking all the Chinese schools to add Jawi inscriptions to their signboards.
Association president Yang Yin Chong has called on all the Chinese schools in Malacca not to abide by the “unreasonable” directive.
Nasruddin explained that the purpose of asking the schools to add Jawi inscriptions was part of the effort of the state government to promote Jawi.
He said that once the schools had added the inscriptions on their signboards, they would be eligible for awards in a competition.
“For example, if Pay Fong (High School) wants to put Jawi (on its signboard), we will put it into a competition. And in the competition, we will award the winner RM2,000,” he said, adding that the prize will be given based on the amount of Jawi inscriptions put in, as well as creativity.
‘What’s the problem promoting Jawi?’
As such, Nasruddin was puzzled by the urging for Chinese schools not to promote Jawi writing.
“If you look at places in Kelantan, the use of Jawi inscriptions is a normal thing. This is a writing, it is not an ideology and stuff. No, just a writing.”
For example, he said, countries like Nepal, India and Indonesia, are having a similar campaign to promote Sanskrit inscriptions.
“So does the Jawi inscription, what is the problem?” he asked.
Nasruddin also denied that this amounted to asking the Chinese schools to teach and learn Jawi writing.
“This is not part of the teaching, it is not included in the curriculum, no.
“We are encouraging any school to implement Jawi inscriptions in schools, not we are asking Pay Fong to learn Jawi writing.
“But if they want to learn, I think it is not a problem, for if I learn Chinese, it will be to my advantage,” he added.
According to Nasruddin, the state government started the campaign to promote the usage of the Jawi script, but still not all government agencies had responded to the campaign.
Malaysiakini had attempted to contact the director as well as the relevant official of the Malacca Education Department to respond to this matter, but was told that none of them were around.
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