KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Harapan government, especially DAP, cannot pin the blame on the previous administration for the latest issue about introducing khat calligraphy to vernacular schools, said MCA.
Its president, Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (pix), said the current government has been part of the administration for more than 400 days, and have more than enough time to deliberate on the issue surrounding khat calligraphy.
“If they said this introduction to khat calligraphy cannot be reversed because of previous government policy, then how is it something like Goods and Services Tax (GST) can be abolished so quickly? This is equivalent to pushing their responsibility,“ he said at a press conference after officiating the 3rd Asean Chinese Education Academic Conference at Wisma MCA today.
He also admonished the current administration for not being able to heed the wishes of education groups and parents about the khat calligraphy issue.
“If they can reduce the number of pages of khat calligraphy from six pages to three pages, I don’t see why they cannot reduce it further to zero,“ he said.
He was responding to the issue surrounding the compulsory introduction of khat calligraphy to vernacular schools starting next year, which raised the ire of Chinese and Tamil education groups nationwide.
The education ministry eventually announced that khat calligraphy was made optional and it depends on the teacher’s prerogative to teach the subject to students.
Furthermore, Wee said the government, especially the Education Minister and Deputy Education Minister, has the right to approve or disapprove the Standard Curriculum and Assessment Document (DSKP) after the school syllabus was drafted and had gone through several evaluations.
“I was previously a Deputy Education Minister and I have rejected a school syllabus prepared by the DKSP before which was to be taught in Malay, on the grounds that vernacular schools should only teach in their own language medium,“ he said.
