Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did not meet Malay groups to seek consensus on the government's plan to introduce English-medium teaching of Maths and Science but to collect different views on the issue, the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) said today.

Its secretary-general Shahran Kasim said Abdullah spent three and a half hours yesterday with representatives of several groups to listen to their views and concerns over the language switch.

"Abdullah was in a listening mode. He did not rebut nor defend the plan. He just assured us that our views will be presented to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad," said Shahran when contacted today.

Among the 36 non-governmental organisations that attended yesterday's meeting with Abdullah were the National Linguistic Association, Federation of Peninsula Malay Students (GPMS), Federation of National Writers (Gapena) and student councils of several public universities.