Chinese education group Dong Zong’s continued demands stem from “greed”, said BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor.

Speaking to reporters today, he said that Chinese education in Malaysia has risen by leaps and bounds since 1980, and this is due to “help from the MCA”.

“This Dong Zong, everything we do is wrong to them.

“It is because of their own greed... this is the problem,” he said.

He added that instead of going at loggerheads with the government, he said Dong Zong should “work together (with the government)... for the sake of the children”.

He said that proof that the schools have improved can be seen when more and more people not from Chinese-speaking backgrounds choose to send their children to Chinese medium schools.

All the same, he said that after 55 years of rule, the BN has made mistakes and that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is trying to correct these.

“Give him a chance to correct them,” he said.

Tengku Adnan’s comments comes after Dong Zong said it will hold a rally on Nov 25 to protest against the preliminary report of the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025, which it describes as unfavourable to the multi-lingual education system.

The protest, which is the latest among a series of rallies held by Dong Zong this year on various Chinese education issues, will be held at Padang Timur, Petaling Jaya, at 11am.

According to the Sin Chew daily's report, Dong Zong president Yap Sin Tian said it is an urgent matter because the blueprint will be finalised at the end of December this year.

"We must submit our suggestions to the relevant authorities and get their attention before the blueprint is finalised in December."

"We hope that this peaceful gathering will be joined by people from all around the country," said Yap in a press conference after chairing a meeting in Perlis yesterday.

He also stressed that the fate of Chinese education will be determined by the blueprint and hence, there is a need for follow up action to make sure their views will be considered by the government.

' Mother tongue education neglected'

Chinese education groups have been protesting against the preliminary report of the national education report for what they say is overemphasis on the teaching and learning of the national language, while mother tongue education is neglected.

NONE These include the adoption of the national school syllabus in teaching the Malay language in vernacular schools and increasing its learning period to 270 minutes per week.

Dong Zong and other groups are worried that this is part of goverment's plan to achieve the ‘ultimate target' as stated in the Razak Report 1956, which is to build a single-stream school system with the Malay language as the main teaching medium.

They have urged the government to give fair treatment to all streams, including Chinese independent schools, and bring them in as part of the national education blueprint.

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