Use of Mandarin, Tamil in vernacular schools constitutional, rules High Court

[superadmin]

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ruled that the use of Tamil and Mandarin in vernacular schools is constitutional.

Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali also held that the existence of about 1,800 such schools, catering to about 500,000 students, is legal and constitutional.

“These schools are not public authorities as defined in the Federal Constitution to use Malay as the medium of instruction,” he said, in dismissing a suit against the existence of vernacular schools.

Nazlan said one must also look at pre- and post-Merdeka laws and the Constitution which provide safeguards for the use of these languages and for the schools to exist.

The suit was initiated by the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS), the Islamic Education Development Council (Mappim) and the Confederation of Malaysian Writers Association (Gapena) in December 2019.

They had sought a declaration that Sections 2, 17 and 28 of the Education Act 1996, and the extent to which they provided for the establishment of vernacular schools using Mandarin and Tamil as the main languages, were inconsistent with Article 152(1) of the Constitution and are considered null and void.

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