Education Ministry to review schools where students can't speak Malay

Results of a recent study has triggered the Education Ministry to review the role of schools where non-Malay students fail to master the language, yet pass the subject in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations.

Prof. Dr Teo Kok Song, a Cornell University lecturer, conducted a study that revealed that 604 of the 14,000 trainees in the 2010 National Service Training Programme could not speak Malay even though some of them have passed the subject in the SPM examination.

Furthermore, the study claimed that the number of young non-Malays who cannot speak the national language is expected to increase in the future as almost 90 per cent of them studied in national-type schools (SJK).

In response to this, the Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh was quoted saying that he will be meeting with Dr Teo soon to further understand the study.