PETALING JAYA: The teaching of Jawi calligraphy in vernacular schools should be made a co-curricular learning activity away from the Year Four Bahasa Melayu syllabus, says a concerned group consisting of representatives from vernacular school board of governers as well as Parent-Teacher Associations.

Consisting of the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Jawi Teaching Special Committee (JTSC) and Seni Khat Action Team (Sekat), the group called for a dialogue with Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.

JTSC coordinator Datuk Eddie Heng Hong Chai said they were not objecting to the teaching of Jawi in vernacular schools or wanting to cause disunity, but merely reiterating their stance in protecting the school boards’ authority in deciding school policies.

“I wish to emphasise that we are not against the teaching of Jawi in schools. In fact, we welcome such learning in the form of art appreciation for pupils as a co-curricular activity.

“We are only opposing the ministry’s decision to include it in the Bahasa Melayu syllabus, ” he told a joint press conference here yesterday.JTSC was formed about a month ago, consisting of members from board of governors and Parent-Teacher Association members from various Chinese primary schools.

Sekat, set up in August, is similar with representatives from Tamil primary schools.

Also present were another JTSC coordinator, Datuk Wong Huat, Sekat national secretary Arun Dorasamy and other members.

Over 320 representatives from 130 Chinese primary schools and 41 Tamil primary schools also attended the event.

The ministry had announced earlier that Jawi calligraphy would be introduced in the Bahasa Melayu subject for Year Four students starting next year.

This caused an uproar among various groups, prompting the ministry to first give teachers in vernacular schools the power to decide whether they wanted to teach the calligraphy art to pupils before passing the decision to parents in the latest guidelines.

In a briefing on the latest developments on the issue, Heng said the Year Four Bahasa Melayu text books for next year had been printed with three pages of Jawi learning.

“This shows that the ministry has ignored the concerns voiced by various stakeholders, ” he said, adding that the decision also circumvented the school boards’ authority in deciding school policies.

With school boards being the founder and pioneer for Chinese primary schools over 200 years ago, Heng said it was a known fact that school boards had the authority in deciding school policies.

“We are concerned that once the precedent is set, school boards will lose their voice in future policies affecting Chinese primary schools, ” he said, adding that it was advisable to return the decision-making to teachers and school boards.

Arun said the possibility of a legal challenge against the ministry would be the group’s last resort if their request for a dialogue was denied.“The ministry should have conducted more discussions with all stakeholders instead of going ahead with the decision, ” he said.

Heng concurred, saying that they were “keeping the doors open for an amicable solution”.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/12/16/make-jawi-a-co-curricular-activity