Ex-judge claims vernacular schools not protected by Federal Constitution

By admin-s On Oct 9, 2014

(Malay Mail) – A former Court of Appeal judge has claimed that the Federal Constitution does not oblige Putrajaya to fund vernacular schools as the law only provides for private education in mother tongues.

Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah told Malay-language daily Sinar Harian in an interview published today that he was not calling for the vernacular school system to be abolished, but only pointing out that Article 152 of the Federal Constitution does not provide for the Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools that are partially funded by the government.

“There is nothing in the constitution that allows SJK to be set up,” Mohd Noor was quoted saying, using the Malay initials for national-type schools, or vernacular schools.

“Private schools, Chinese and Tamil schools, and schools of whatever ethnic group in this country that want to teach in the mother tongue, go ahead, but you have to fund it yourself.

“Say the Chinese want to learn Chinese, they can set up a school with their own funds,” he added.

Unlike national schools that use Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction, vernacular schools that teach in Mandarin and Tamil do not receive full federal funding and must rely on other sources of revenue — primarily private donations — to finance their operations.

Mohd Noor said Article 152(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution, which allows for the use and study of languages other than Bahasa Malaysia, does not refer to mother tongue-based education.

“The word ‘study’ refers to the study of language at a centre or language schools in universities. Such studies include knowing the origins and development of a certain language. So clause (b) can’t be used to defend SJK,” he said.

But the former judge claimed that the government can fund religious schools because the Federal Constitution places Islam as the religion of the federation.