SPAOH: Persatuan Warga Islam Saribas (Pewaris) wants the Ministry of Education (MOE) to incorporate Jawi writing as part of the Pendidikan Islam subject syllabus to produce Muslim students who are fluent in reading and writing Jawi.
Pewaris education bureau chairman Dr Abang Ismail Abang Julhi explained that Jawi was a subject in school between the 1960s and 1970s until it was abolished in the 1980s.
“To avoid any confusion and misunderstanding, let us incorporate Jawi writing only in Pendidikan Islam to allow Muslim students to master it,” he said.
Recently, Chinese education group (Dong Zong) secretary-general Ng Chai Heng stated that there are over 900 Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) signatures on a petition to refuse the teaching and learning of Jawi in SJKCs.
Dong Zong claimed the implementation of teaching and learning Jawi should be based on the principle of diversity of languages and cultures.
“The guidelines announced on Dec 5 for implementing Jawi writing in the subject of Bahasa Melayu for Primary Four students of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (SJK) beginning in 2020 and the revisited guidelines from Dec 20 clearly shows MOE’s inability to professionally manage the issue while instigating dissatisfaction from the public,” he said.
