SAPP supports Dong Zong's proposal

KUALA LUMPUR - Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Vice President Datuk Chua Soon Bui, represented SAPP together with five party members, supported and voted for the four resolutions proposed by Dong Zong at the United Chinese school committee Association's headquarters in conjunction with the protest gathering staged by DONG ZONG on 25th March 2012 at Kajang, Selangor.

SAPP is the only Sabah-based party which joined the protest urging the government to take drastic actions to correct the unfair education policies against Chinese and vernacular schools with the four resolutions :-

(1) A Review of the Education Act to ensure Chinese and vernacular schools are accorded equal status and be safeguarded.

(2) A Reform of teachers training syllabus so that more qualified Chinese Speaking teachers can be trained to the fullest needs of the primary schools.

(3) To urge the Ministry to transfer out all teachers without the required SPM Chinese language qualification for Chinese primary schools.

(4) to urge the Ministry to conduct special courses for the Chinese language teachers from Chinese primary schools, who have taught Bahasa Malaysia or English for at least 3 years so that they are also qualified teachers in all three languages.

Datuk Chua Soon Bui, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tawau, was overwhelmed by the presence of over 10,000 people from all walks of life, various races and ages, educationists, ex-principals, over 600 NGOs from all parts of the nation gathered for a common cause.

She urged that the government of the day neither to take it as a political nor racial issue.

"It should be made to understand to the Prime Minister that the long overdue issue is not a Chinese issue as he sent his Deputy Education Minister, Dato' Wee Ka Siong to mediate on the issue.

Chua said it is because 36% of students in Chinese primary schools in Sabah are non-Chinese and similar phenomena in Sarawak.

"Even though there is less non-Chinese students in Chinese Schools in Peninsula Malaysia, this should be considered and handled as a national issue which involves all Malaysians being given a option to be educated in the language of their choice. With the same rationale, we are also seeing non-Chinese teachers teaching in Chinese primary schools as long as they qualified the basic requirements for the Chinese schools.

As for Sabah, Chua urged the Prime Minister to give more allocations to Gaya and Kent Teachers Training colleges, both have produced creditable and qualified teachers to Chinese primary schools.

Chua, herself being a committee member of the Sabah Progressive Education Fund said the fund has helped more than a 1,000 teachers to complete their training courses since it's inception in1996 thus helping to ease the shortage of Chinese trained teachers especially in Sabah.