The National School can form racial unity, said Zahid

PASIR MAS: The national education system should be the core of education in this country regardless of stream to form unity, said the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Berita Harian reported, he said, the three-stream education system practiced in this country involving national schools, vernacular schools and based on Islamic education is seen as difficult to achieve unity.

However, he said, the national education system can be used as a core to reach a meeting point for unity because social assimilation needs to be done through the mixing of children of various races.

“We can see in institutions of higher learning (IPT) for example, when the three-stream system (threelism) is in the background, it is not easy to have a meeting, so there is a cross-cultural situation.

“This cross culture makes it difficult to build unity because the best is through the education system that starts at pre-school, primary and secondary school level up to IPT,” he said speaking at the 30th Anniversary Celebration Launch of the Association of Retired Malaysian Education Service Officers Kelantan State Branch (5PMCK) in grounds of the Pension Teacher Office and Lu’Lu’ Hall, Jalan Pintasan, here, today.

Also present were Kelantan UMNO Liaison Board Chairman, Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub and 5PMCK Chairman, Datuk Idris Muhamood.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said that the Unity Government has proven that there is no marginalization of the Islamic agenda, including national education.

“This is proven through the increase in allocations for translating the Islamic agenda including education to RM1.9 billion this year compared to only RM1.4 billion last year through the presentation of the Madani Malaysia Budget 2024.

“This benefit is also received by KAFA teachers, takmir and tahfiz teachers which is proof of the government’s commitment to Islamic-based educational institutions.

“Islam is never threatened, besides there is no voice in the unity party component that opposes the Islamic agenda, even all parties give encouragement and support,” he said.