Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament, Lim Kit Siang, when speaking to the DAP Chinese Education Committee meeting held in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 1st August 1979 at 6 p.m.
DAP proposes the convening of a national educational convention to discuss ways and means to raise the standards of Chinese primary schools, and also to protect the character of Chinese primary schools from being converted.
Chinese primary schools, which have been swarmed with an unprecedented increase in enrolment demonstrating the desire of Malaysia Chinese to have their children receive mother-tongue education as guaranteed in the Malaysian Constitution, must aim at the ever raising of educational standards in Chinese primary schools and in the expansion of school buildings and classrooms.
The 1978 Standard V Assessment Examination results for the Chinese primary schools show that teachers, parents and educationists in the Government and outside must get together to discuss ways and means to raise the standards of Chinese primary schools, especially in Malay and English subjects.
Pupils in Chinese primary schools of course face a difficult situation as compared to students in national primary schools, in that they have to cover many more subjects in the same number of hours as their counterparts in national primary schools.
However, I believed that ways and means can be devised whereby Chinese primary school pupils can attain comparable if not higher standards than students in national primary schools in Malay and English subjects. This of course must depend on the dedication and commitment of Boards of Managements, teachers and parents.
Last Year’s Std. V Assessment Test results showed that the Chinese primary school students continue to be weaker in Bahasa Malaysia and English as compared to other subjects.
Thus, for the total of some 92,900 students from Chinese primary school; pupils who sat for the Std. V. Assessment Test last year, the pass and failure rates for each subject are as follows:
Pass Fail
Bahasa Malaysia 18.7% 81.3%
English I 47.4% 52.6%
Mathematics 67.4% 30.6%
Science 62.6% 37.4%
History/Geography 71.6% 28.4%
Chinese 61.2% 38.8%
Chinese primary school pupils lead all the other schools in the percentage of passes in Mathematics, Science, History /Geography.
As Bahasa Malaysia and English are weak spots for Chinese primary schools, these weak spots must be remedied.
In fact, if we look at the percentage of pass rates of Chinese primary schools in Bahasa Malaysia state by state, the need for national remedy is highlighted.
Percentage of
Total Number of Students
Pass Failure Taking Test
Johore 12% 88% 15,174
Perak 12% 88% 17,548
Sarawak 13% 87% 8,318
Pahang 16.8% 83.2% 4,676
Negeri Sembilan 18.1% 81.9% 5,024
Selangor 16.2% 83.8% 17,824
Penang 22.6% 77.4% 10,065
Perlis 28.5% 71.5% 557
Sabah 36.7% 63.3% 3,673
Kedah 38.3% 61.7% 4,906
Malacca 39.4% 60.6% 3,918
Trengganu 44.2% 55.8% 468
Kelantan 50.7% 49.3% 838
92,989
Apart from Bahasa Malaysia and English, the Selangor Chinese primary schools fare quite well as compared to other states. Thus, for Selangor Chinese primary schools, the percentage of passes for the respective subjects in last year’s Std. V. Assessment Test are:
Bahasa Malaysia 16.2% Passes
English I 44%
Mathematics 70%
Sains 62%
History/Geogr. 71.9%
Chinese 62%
All in all, there is a necessity not only in generally remedying the weak Bahasa Malaysia and English attainments of Chinese primary schools, but also in other subjects.
For this reason, the DAP proposes that the Boards of Managements Federation and the Federation of Teachers’ Unions should convene a national convention to find ways and means to upgrade further the academic standards of Chinese primary school pupils. Such a convention should also discuss ways to ensure that the characters of Chinese primary schools remain intact and unconverted, despite the threatening presence of Clause 21(b) of the Education Act, which should be repealed.