PUTRAJAYA, June 14 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today clarified that the government will not be employing English teachers from Singapore for Malaysian schools.
Instead, he explained that the suggested voluntary scheme will be a fully funded programme by the Singaporean government aimed at assisting Malaysia’s disadvantaged in mastering the English language.
“Bahasa Malaysia is the language of instruction and the official language.
“But we want to emphasise English, so I asked if there was a scheme from Singapore to help.
“We are not appointing teachers from Singapore. Listen first. Some are bashing this on social media, but the facts are wrong.
“What I discussed with the prime minister of Singapore is to organise an aid scheme, or to appoint volunteers who are paid by the Singaporean government to go to areas, especially in poor urban and rural areas, to teach English,” he said during his speech at the ‘Himpunan Aspirasi Madani Rakan Pembimbing Perkhidmatan Awam Bersama Perdana Menteri’ programme at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre today.
Anwar stressed that it is his mission to build good rapport with neighbouring countries.
“I want to build good relations between countries. We want to be good with Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, our important neighbours.
“During our discussion, we talked about the Johor economic zone, along with investment and trade, and I suggested using the initiative to build good relations, by encouraging graduates from Singapore to participate in a volunteer scheme teaching English in Malaysia. That’s our recommendation,” he explained.
On Wednesday, Anwar met with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during the latter’s two-day working visit to Malaysia. Among the topics discussed was the possibility of sending Singaporean teachers to Malaysia.
Presently, Johor and Singapore are already working on a joint education project with a new curriculum that involves the exchange of programmes and teacher training.
