Anwar: Govt not appointing S'porean teachers, only 'volunteers'

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has clarified his proposal to bring in “Singaporean teachers” to the country to teach English or other subjects.

Anwar explained that the discussion with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong was to potentially form an “assistance scheme” by sending “volunteers” to teach English in urban poor areas as well as the interiors of Sabah and Sarawak.

“It’s not to bring in and appoint English teachers from Singapore. The volunteers will be paid by the Singapore government.

“I want to build better relations with other countries. We want to be good with Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia - our important neighbours,” he said.

The premier was speaking at the “Himpunan Aspirasi Madani Rakan Pembimbing Perkhidmatan Awam” event at the Putrajaya International Convention Center today.

On Wednesday, Anwar met Wong to discuss strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries during the Singapore PM’s maiden visit to Malaysia after being sworn into the post on May 15.

During the four-eyed meeting, Bernama reported that Anwar said they discussed the possibility of the island republic sending teachers to Malaysia to teach English and other subjects.

"We did discuss the possibility of Singapore considering my humble submission of sending teachers to teach English or some other subjects to many regions in this country.

“Let young graduates make their own choice (regarding which subject to teach) if they can,” Anwar said in a joint press conference with Wong on June 12.

Anwar added that he was pleased that Wong was prepared to consider his request to improve English proficiency and other subjects in Malaysia.

"This is not something that we prepared through the officers. We want to just prove that sometimes prime ministers can decide before the ministers.”

Not just Singapore

Anwar was subsequently criticised over the proposal for “disrespecting Malaysians by attempting to bring in teachers from Singapore”.

He further clarified today that the same was offered to other nations and not just Singapore.

“There were some who said that I do not respect my own people, and try to ‘bring in communists’ from Singapore. We offer it to all countries.

“At universities in Uzbekistan… If they want to send their students here, I said it’s also good for us to send our lecturers there to observe the changes.

“It was the same with Japan. I also discussed it with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida,” he added.

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