Alarm bells have been triggered by press reports that teachers who object to the imminent language switch for Science and Mathematics lessons in schools would be punished.

A statement attributed to Deputy Education Minister Abdul Aziz Samsuddin in the Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau today said teachers who voiced any such objection or who joined opposition parties to protest the government's decision would be penalised.

The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) has tried to follow up on the issue without success secretary-general N Siva Subramaniam now has his own theory as to what might have happened.

According to the same press report, the deputy minister had also said the government needed the full support of teachers when the language switch policy is implemented at different levels of schooling. However, the date and method of implementation have yet to be decided.

The contentious issue of teaching the two subjects in English has, since May, elicited strong objections from various groups who said the move would not help improve pupils' command of English.

Rather, they claimed it could lead to deterioration in performance in the two subjects, especially in vernacular schools.

Checks with ministry

Siva, who said he read Abdul Aziz's statement in a Tamil newspaper, had no knowledge of any such intention on the part of the Education Ministry.

"I do not think it is true. I contacted the ministry, but was told there is no such issue," he said when contacted.

"An officer told me that a statement would be issued to clarify the report. I think this may have been due to miscommunication."

Malaysiakini checked with the deputy minister's office as well, but a officer said he had not received any directive to issue any clarification.

At NUTP's 16th annual general meeting two weeks ago, the union adopted a resolution to support the government's decision on the language switch.

Shortage of teachers

Meanwhile, the ministry's parliamentary secretary Mahadzir Mohd Khir told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday of a shortfall of 5,281 English language teachers nationwide.

There are 4,654 vacancies in primary schools and 627 in secondary schools. However, 2,864 teachers are being trained to meet needs..

The ministry is also organising conversion courses for non-English language trained teachers, together with twinning programmes with local and foreign universities.

Siva said, though, he was confident that the shortage of teachers would not affect the move to implement the language switch.