Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad must have been dumbfounded about the different and conflicting front-page news reports about his hour-long meeting with two Chinese groups on the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English at his office in Putrajaya yesterday.

The premier may have intended to convey a message that the government was still gathering feedback from various quarters on how to implement the language switch but the dailies failed to portray this.

'PM: Schools in Malaysia and China are not the same, Chinese must accept reality' read the headline in the Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia .

The daily said Mahathir 'stressed': "Surely the Chinese schools here are different from those in China. The Chinese here are Malaysians, they are not in China or Taiwan.

"Therefore they should accept what is considered 'national' in Malaysia and not try to replicate the schools in China."