Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan today welcomed Johor Sultan Ibrahim Ismail's suggestion to emulate the Singapore education system which uses English as the medium of instruction.

He said the government has always incorporated higher usage of English in primary, secondary and tertiary level education in the country.

"We praise and appreciate the Sultan's comment on the education system.

"We recognise English is an important language. English is being utilised in the schools. We will continue to strengthen this... it is an ongoing process," Kamalanathan ( photo ) said after attending the Megatech International College Nepal earthquake relief event in Subang Jaya today.

He insisted that the strengthening of both the English and Malay languages are incorporated in the Malaysian education system and  was specifically mentioned in the Malaysian Education Blueprint to upgrade the country's education system.

However he did not comment whether our education system will adopt English as the medium in school.

Adopt the best practices

"We have always adopted the best practices from around the world to enhance the Malaysian education," he said.

Yesterday, the sultan ( photo ) urged his people to emulate Singapore's single stream education system which uses English as the medium of instruction.

In his speech at the opening of the Johor state assembly sitting, he said Singapore's system has succeeded in fostering unity in the city state and Johoreans should be open-minded about adopting it.

"An interesting point that we can emulate from Singapore is the unity which has been fostered by its single-stream education system which uses English language as the medium," he said.