Dong Zong pull out: Politics in Chinese education?
Other Chinese-based education movements feel that Dong Zong should have participated in the Education Ministry’s roundtable meeting to address shortage of Chinese school teachers.
Other stakeholders are of the view that Dong Zong should not have taken the action as it was among the parties that have been fighting for the government to address the shortage issue. They want Dong Zong to continue to sit in the committee to monitor the implementation of the adopted plan.
By Alan Ting, Free Malaysia Today
Chinese education movement Dong Zong or the United Chinese School Committees Association created another stir with a recent anouncement that it is pulling out of the roundtable meetings of the Education Ministry’s special committee to address the shortage of Chinese school teachers.
Early this year, the movement had created a stir when they staged a protest claiming the Education Ministry was not working towards resolving the shortage.
Following that, a special committee was formed under a cabinet directive involving various stake holders including Dong Zong to hold roundtable meetings which eventually resulted in an eight-point plan to tackle the issue.
Despite this, Dong Zong held a protest at Era College in Kajang, Selangor on March 25 but later continued to participate in the roundtable discussions with other stakeholders and the Education Ministry.
But, two weeks ago, it announced another pull out from the roundtable discussions even when four other bodies – Jiao Zong (the United Chinese School Teachers Association), Hua Zong (the Federation of Chinese Associations), the National Union of Teaching Profession and SJKC School Headmasters Association continued to participate.
The reason given for the pullout was that Dong Zong had wanted to discuss education policy changes during the roundtable meetings but Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong, who chaired the special committee, said they should bring up matters related to policies during the National Education Dialogue.
‘Policy issues’
Other stakeholders are of the view that Dong Zong should not have taken the action as it was among the parties that have been fighting for the government to address the shortage issue. They want Dong Zong to continue to sit in the committee to monitor the implementation of the adopted plan.
Jiao Zong president Ong Kow Yee has openly said that it was a pity that Dong Zong had to withdraw from the Roundtable Conference because of “policy issues”, as he believed that the roundtable was vital in ensuring that the problems faced by SJKCs (National-Type Chinese Schools) could be settled.
“We have seen encouraging progress in the past in the government’s efforts in solving the teacher shortage problem in SJKCs. So we think that Dong Zong should not discard the opportunity offered by the Roundtable conference,” he said.
Some educationists pointed out that the special committee set up by the Education Ministry was decided by the Cabinet and has come out with systematic measures to overcome the issue. This resulted in the eight-point plan that has been agreed to by the Government.
On March 27, the Education Ministry sent out service extension letters to interim teachers in SJKCs, whereby school headmasters could nominate teachers who met the criteria and the relevant state education department directors would make the appointments.
Under the eight-point plan, the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia and English at Level One in Chinese vernacular schools of Grade A and B will be carried out by teachers who are qualified to teach the Chinese language at least at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) level.
While for under-enrolled schools, the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia and English at Levels One and Two will be carried out by teachers who have Chinese language qualifications at least at the SPM level.
The Education Ministry also came out with long-term initiatives to overcome the teacher shortage problem in Chinese vernacular schools. One such initiative was formulating the Add-on Option Intervention Programme (Program Intervensi Tambah Opsyen or PITO) for teachers who do not have a Bahasa Melayu or English option, and have taught a subject other than the Chinese language for over five years.
This course is expected to start by year end so as to not affect the teaching and learning process in the classroom.
Apart from that, the number of Chinese Studies lecturers will also be increased in teachers’ training institutes across Malaysia.
Despite all these efforts, Dong Zong still wants to pull out and this has raised some questions whether it was a tactical move to exert pressure on the government since it has been perceived to be aligned with the opposition parties.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the boards of thirteen Chinese primary schools in Johor Bahru are now pressuring Dong Zong to return to the roundtable or quit the movement.
