The bilingual programme (DLP) to be introduced by the Education Ministry will supposedly cause “a great calamity” to the country.

Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) president Mohamad Sabu said students’ performance will slide if the DLP is implemented, similar to when the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) was implemented in 2013-2015.

“Research by Persatuan Belia Islam Nasional (Pembina) on the success of PPSMI in 2013-2015 showed that more primary and secondary school students failed Mathematics and Science because of it. They also failed English.

“This is a double calamity for our students,” he told reporters at the Amanah headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Mohamad said the implementation of the DLP goes against the decision to uphold the Malay language - something he said is part of the ‘7 Wasiat Raja-raja Melayu’.

The ‘7 Wasiat Raja-raja Melayu’ refers to a list of demands by the Malay rulers as a condition for Independence and constitutional monarchy.

Mohamad said the DLP shows that the ministry places more weight on the recommendations of the Performance and Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu), than the National Education Policy.

The government should take heed of the views of academics, teachers, NGOs and cultural and language activists, before making a decision on the DLP.

“We do not oppose the move to strengthen the grasp on English language, but it should not be a medium of instruction in schools.

“Mastery of the English language should be achieved through teaching and learning the language as a subject in school, not through changing the education policy,” he said.

Also at the press conference was Malaysian Education Officers Retirees Association president Abdul Raof Hussin, who said the DLP seems to be a rebranding of the scrapped PPSMI.

“It will have the same consequences. There will be no improvement in students’ performance in Mathematics and Science, while their performance in English continues to slide.

“If this continues, we will have a crisis in a reduction of students in the sciences in the future,” he warned.

He stressed that students should not be subjects in an experiment, and that the ministry should be guided by existing policies.