KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today pledged to discuss with Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek how current requirements set for Tamil to be taught as an additional language in secondary schools can be relaxed.
“I will alert and suggest the Ministry of Education make the necessary adjustments, although if we set the condition to 10, we should allow nine or 11 students also. Also present were co-chairman of the conference V. Sivakumar, who is also Human Resource Minister and MIC deputy president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan.
He said there was this old mindset among many Malaysians, including some Malays, that they should fear the promotion of other languages in secondary schools, particularly the Chinese language.“Can you imagine the New Malaysia there is proficiency in the national language, with students mastering English and a significant number mastering Tamil, Chinese or Arabic languages ,” he added.