Gerakan today reiterated its stand that the subjects of Science and Maths should be taught in the students' mother tongue - and not in English - at the primary school level.

"English, however, can be used in the teaching of Science and Maths at the secondary school and tertiary levels, provided there are sufficient qualified teaching staff to do so," the party's education and knowledge society bureau chief Dr Hsu Dar Ren said in a statement today.

While Science and Maths should be taught in the mother-tongue language at primary schools, Hsu said the teaching of English as a subject at primary level should be improved. He did not elaborate on how this is to be done.

Hsu said Gerakan, a component party in the ruling Barisan Nasional, has been consistent on its stand since 2002 via two memorandum submitted to the education ministry so far.

His comment came in the wake of a roundtable meeting on Tuesday, called by the education ministry over the controversial language switch policy which was implemented since 2003.

The meeting, which was the fifth with the interest groups and stakeholders, however did not reach any final decision whether the government should continue with the policy or revert to the use of mother tongue in teaching the two subjects.

‘Why is Gerakan being left out?'

On the meeting, Hsu expressed regret that Gerakan was not invited to attend it although 200 representatives from various political parties and NGOs were reportedly invited.

"While there was no official invitation extended to Gerakan, we find it strange that according to feedback from other participants, there were seats reserved for our party.

"We discovered that some BN component parties such as SUPP were also not invited despite having designated seats for the party," claimed Hsu in the one-page statement.

He noted that the absence of BN component parties at the meeting will create a negative perception and called on the Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to probe the matter.

"We would like to strongly urge the education minister to carry out a thorough investigation and give us an answer on this matter and we hope that the same thing would not happen again in future," he said.

Teaching Science and Maths in English was the brainchild of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to improve students' proficiency in the language.

The policy was implemented in all national schools but an alternative formula was reached for vernacular Chinese and Tamil schools as a compromise after strong protests.

Critics have claimed that the policy was introduced as part of the government's plan to phase out vernacular schools.

The education ministry has however maintained that the students have benefitted from the policy.