An emergency motion to debate the cap on subjects for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination has been rejected in chambers by Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.

Teluk Intan DAP parliamentarian M Manogaran failed in his bid to push for debate on the government's decision to restrict examination candidates to 10 subjects.

The emergency motion was filed on Monday, under Standing Order 18(1).

However, the speaker rejected the motion, saying that the Education Ministry had replied to the issue on Oct 27 when winding-up on related points raised during debate on the Supply Bill 2010.

a kugan detention death funeral ummc to puchong 280109 m manogaran Responded Manogaran: “This is factually wrong because (the reply was on) a totally different matter. Now I have lost my opportunity to resubmit my motion as I only received the speaker's reply this morning.

“If I want to resubmit, it has to be before 10am (today). The next session is in March and I have lost my opportunity.”

Manogaran argued that the ministry’s move would sideline the use of vernacular languages on a long-term basis and that it will also affect the training provided to language teachers.

“It doesn’t only bring harm to the Chinese and Indian (languages), but also to the Iban, and Punjabi languages which are equally affected,” he said.

Last week, the government reconsidered its decision and allowed students to take two elective subjects in addition to the 10 core subjects.

NONE This followed protests from the Indian and Chinese communities, which feared that the original move would marginalise mother-tongue education.

Indian students will be allowed to sit the Tamil Language and Tamil Literature papers but the results will not be taken into account in the overall achievement in the examination.

Also, the two subjects will not be considered for scholarship purposes, unless it is for language-related jobs such as teaching.