BY: HAFEZ SAIDIN

In recent years, vernacular schools, both Chinese and Tamil, have been coming under the spotlight and all the controversy surrounding them have only served to enhance and increase the prestige of these schools.

The latest episode is the sponsorship of Chinese schools by breweries and tobacco companies which even drew flak from the august Malaysian Medical Association as to how far schools should go to receive sponsorships.

Last year there was a bold and daring bid by Malay rights groups and Islamic extremists and other lunatic fringe groups to close down Chinese and Tamil schools on the specious grounds that they were unconstitutional.

But Chinese and Tamil schools have been playing an important part in imparting vernacular education for more than a century in this country and many of the students who left these schools have excelled in life all over the world.

Instead of trying to stifle their popularity and growth, as bumiputra intake in vernacular schools are increasing, the government should learn how to adapt their ways to government schools that are waning in popularity.

If the preferred choice of bumiputras, Chinese and Indians is to opt for a vernacular education, the government must ask itself why the national schooling system is in such dire straits and take firm and decisive action to remedy the situation.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher