Mandarin, Tamil, Thai, Khmer to be taught in schools as elective languages

The Education Ministry is expanding elective language offerings in schools to include Mandarin, Tamil and Asean languages.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said this includes Thai, Khmer, and Vietnamese, in an effort to promote deeper intra-Asean collaboration.

"Asean strength lies in its cultural, linguistic and traditional diversity. To harness this, we must prepare our youth to be multilingual, adaptable and culturally competent,” Bernama quoted her as saying at an Asean education summit in Penang yesterday.

There have long been calls to integrate vernacular languages into national schools to bolster unity and integration among Malaysian children.

Chinese schools in particular are becoming increasingly popular among Malay parents.

It was reported in February that all Year One students enrolled in SJKC Kong Aik in Mata Ayer, Perlis were not Chinese.

In fact, 93 of the 190 students at the school were Malay.

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