DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today described the Education Ministry's reasons to use English to teach Mathematics and Science revealed during yesterday's parliamentary session as "the most outrageous and scandalous answer in the history of Parliament".

He said Education Minister Musa Mohamad not only failed to answer the question raised by DAP MP Kerk Kim Hock (Kota Melaka) but also made the false assumption that the only way to excel in Mathematics and Science was to learn the two subjects in English from Standard One.

Lim also questioned Musa's remark, supposedly based on a study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science 1990, that it was necessary to switch to English since most reference materials for the subjects are in that language and so as not to "deprive (students) of a basic education and handicap them for life".

"Is Musa suggesting that under all the previous education ministers, Malaysians had been 'deprived of a basic education' and 'handicapped for life' because of the neglect of Mathematics and Science in schools?" he said in a press statement.