The Education Ministry has been asked to provide Chinese and Tamil medium schools soft copies of Bahasa Malaysia textbooks, pending a reprint of the revised texts.

"As the textbooks won't be ready in time for the beginning of the next school session, we suggest that the Education Ministry send soft copies to the all National-Type Schools (SJK) to enable teachers to plan accordingly," a group of pro-vernacular school NGOs said in a statement today.

The NGOs were Engage, LLG Cultural Development Centre (LLG), Merdeka University Berhad, National Indian Rights Action Team (Niat), Negeri Sembilan Chinese Assembly Hall (NSCAH), Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara (Aliran), The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH), Persatuan Bekas Siswazah Universiti dan Kolej di China, Malaysia (LiuHua), Tamil Foundation Malaysia, Tindak Malaysia (TM), and the United Chinese School Alumni Associations of Malaysia (UCSAAM).

The Bahasa Malaysia textbooks for vernacular schools was supposed to follow their curriculum.

However, it was reported that some of Chinese primary schools (SJKC) received copies that were meant for national schools (SK).

The Education Ministry however has decided to print new copies of the Bahasa Malaysia books for the affected schools, a move the group lauded.

Meanwhile the group in its statement also rejected plans to standardise Bahasa Malaysia education in all schools.

"It is our stand that the teaching of BM in SJKC and SJKT should be as a second language and the pedagogy should be different from the SK where Bahasa Malaysia is taught as the students’ first language.

"However, we agree that necessary steps should be taken to uplift the standard of Bahasa Malaysia in SJK with a comprehensive plan," they said.

However they said efforts to improve command of the Malay language in vernacular schools must be gradual, and that rushed decisions will prove disastrous.