Leaders of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) one of the groups branded "extremist" by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for its vocal opposition to the controversial English-language switch will meet the premier soon to present their views.

SCAH will join the Chinese assembly halls of 13 other states which come under an umbrella body Federation of Chinese Assembly Hall (Hua Zong) at the meeting for which a date is yet to be fixed.

SCAH which joined forces with two Chinese education groups namely the United Chinese School Committees Association (Dong Zong) and United Chinese School Teachers Association (Jiao Zong) to object the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English met with a strong rebuke from government leaders.

Mahathir labeled them "extremist" and warned them "not to play with fire". Following this, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Zainal Abidin Zin also warned that the Internal Security Act will be used against those who try to turn the issue into a racial one.

Nevertheless, their rejections on the imminent implementation were endorsed by other quarters, including Malay and Tamil education groups, as well as numerous civil groups.

Contacted yesterday, SCAH president Ting Chee Seng said he was still waiting for the notice of meeting from the prime minister's office. He said he has been informed that the notice will be sent out two weeks before the meeting.

On Monday, Mahathir held an hour-long meeting with two Chinese groups the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) and the Federation of Seven Clans and Associations at his office in Putrajaya to hear their views on the issue.

Reduce misunderstanding

Hua Zong was supposed to have joined them for the meeting but failed to do so as many of their leaders from the other states were unable to make it.

Ting also said that the Chinese assembly halls also preferred to meet the prime minister as an individual group as they were unsure of the stand of ACCCIM at that time.

"I think the forthcoming meeting is a good chance for us to convey our opinions and feedback obtained from our grassroots to the prime minister face-to-face. It will also help to reduce misunderstanding as some papers had reported some of our views inaccurately," he said.

"We hope the government's transparency on the proposed implementation could be made known to us at the meeting. Likewise, we also hope if there have been mistakes on our part, the government can rectify us," he added.

Ting also revealed that SCAH's recent survey conducted by over 300 of its members would be compiled and presented to Mahathir. It is also learnt that Hua Zong would also be submitting a memorandum to the prime minister.

In May, the government announced that the medium of instruction for the two subjects would be changed form Bahasa Melayu to English at certain levels in national schools from next year to arrest the declining standard of English among students.

Later, the government proposed expanding the move to cover vernacular schools as well and has decided to carry out the implementation despite widespread objection from various quarters, especially vernacular education groups.

All views to be considered

While these groups acknowledged the importance of mastering English, they argued that teaching Science and Mathematics in that language will not improve proficiency.

They also said that the switch may see vernacular school students' performance in the two subjects deteriorate as it is easier for them to learn the subjects in their respective mother-tongues.

Even Chinese-based parties in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition have expressed reservation over the switch.

This eventually led to the prime minister announcing that all views would be considered by the government before a final decision is made.

However, the education ministry said that all is set for the implementation when the new school year begins in about four months from now and the ministry is only waiting for the prime minister to decide the appropriate time to bring up the issue to the cabinet to make the decision.

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, which is committed to publish the primary school text books next year for the new policy has reportedly confirmed that the required Arithmetic text books for Year One would be in the market by December.