updated version

Umno Youth today conceded that Gerakan's rejection of the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English is "understandable" as their objections are based purely on academic reasons.

Its information chief Azimi Daim said that Gerakan was merely worried about the effect of the shift on students' performance, unlike the Chinese educationist group, Dong Jiao Zong, which, Umno Youth claimed, opposed it on racial grounds.

Azimi said Umno Youth finds unacceptable, any ethnic group who is objecting on the ground that English may obliterate its culture or identity.

He urged those opposing the government's new education policy "to look far ahead" in order to understand how the policy will benefit Malaysians.