UMNO AGM Amid accusations from certain quarters in Umno that vernacular schools sow the seeds of division and racism, a Sabah delegate has defended the schools for the sake of bumiputeras.

"Vernacular schools have become an issue in the Peninsular but don’t close them drastically in Sabah, I feel there is no need to close these schools at all," said Taufiq Abu Bakar Titingan.

According to statistics, he said almost 50 percent of the students in Chinese schools in Sabah are bumiputera.

In his place of Tawau, Taufiq said bumiputera students in the Kuok Ming Chinese school there was around 84 percent.

"If the school is closed, where will they study?" he told the Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur today.

Instead of closing the schools, the Sabah delegate said the government should focus on raising the standard of the national language in vernacular schools.

He acknowledged that many students in those schools had trouble with the national language.

"We want all Malaysians to be able to speak the national language fluently, no matter which schools they studied in," he said.

He added that teaching experts should be assigned for this task of uplifting the language proficiency.

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