There is no running away from the fact that the English language is a prerequisite in today’s job market, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He told a gathering of youths from the government’s Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M) skills development programme that employers are looking for graduates who have high self-esteem and are able to communicate, especially in the English language.

“Like it or not, English is a prerequisite in today’s world, so we can’t be emotional, or feel that we don’t need to learn English. English is a prerequisite for us to move forward, to move ahead [...]

“So for our own national identity, we require the national language. That is also a prerequisite. But for us to move ahead, to compete with the rest of the world, we require a good command of the English language,” he said in a speech in Kuala Lumpur today.

His speech came two days after the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Malacca chapter president Dr M Nachiappan was quoted as saying that some 1,000 medical graduates had quit after finding it difficult to communicate with their peers in English.

Some parents groups such as the Parents Action Group on Education (Page) had long campaigned for the reinstatement of the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English, at least as an option.

Meanwhile, Najib said the marketability of graduates on the job market should be a key performance indicator (KPI) for public universities.

If the universities perform well, then their budgets can be increased he said, just weeks after tabling a budget that would see public university budgets slashed next year.

“If we can set up that KPI and the employability of the graduates is high, then we can increase the budget approved for the university in the future.

“That is the deal that we have with the universities under the higher education development blueprint,” he said.