JERANTUT, Mar 31 (Sin Chew Daily) — 1,275 Chinese primary schools or 98.08% of the total are against the incorporation of Jawi in Year 4 Bahasa Malaysia textbooks.

Only 25 Chinese primary schools or 1.92% have agreed, said Tan Tai Kim, president of the United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), citing the latest survey conducted by Dong Zong.

"Two Chinese primary schools in Kedah, one in Penang, seven in Perak, two each in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, one in Negeri Sembilan, four in Johor, five in Sabah and three in Sarawak have agreed to the teaching of Jawi," he said.

"A total of ten Chinese primary schools in Perlis, 65 in Melaka, 75 in Pahang, 15 in Kelantan and ten in Terengganu, including some with majority non-Chinese students, are against the teaching of Jawi calligraphy," he added.

Tan said this when he was at the Jerantut magistrate's court to support eight committee members of Jerantut Chinese Primary Schools committee. The eight committee members were charged with unlawful assembly for displaying banners opposing to the inclusion of Jawi calligraphy in Chinese primary school textbooks.

The case was fixed for mention in magistrate's court.

Tan urged the government to shelve the policy, saying that based on the survey carried out by Dong Zong this year and last year, under 2% of Chinese primary schools in the country supported the policy.

He is of the view that the ministry of education should review the policy instead of conducting the review only after implementing the BM curriculum for Year 4 through Year 6.

"The implementation does not have any significance and is wasting time," he asserted.

Tan said he hoped the education ministry would take the feedback from the local Chinese community in a serious manner.

Both Dong Zong and the Chinese community have concurred that the Malay language is the official language of the country and they welcomed the government's decision to enhance the teaching of the language at Chinese primary schools, he said.