The teaching of Islamic education in kindergartens and schools will be changed by emphasising the inculcation of noble values based on Islam, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said inculcating noble values in children when they were still young could help mould a better society.

Parents, he said, were now too busy with their career that they did not have much time to teach their children.

“That is why children become wild and do bad things. lf they are not taught positive values, they learn from friends, and their friends are not all good,” he said during a dialogue session at a congress on the future of bumiputera and the nation at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.

Dr Mahathir said a person with good values would use the knowledge that was acquired for good.

“The knowledge acquired is useful if the person use it for good. If the person is a rouge, he/she will use the knowledge to steal, (but) if the person is good, he/she will use the knowledge for good,” he added.

- Bernama