Educationist Kua Kia Soong today opined that revival of the local education authorities and the government’s fresh idea to set-up education precincts would help to forge unity among students under the multi-stream education system.

He said that the country needs the combination of old and new ideas to break down the racial barrier existing among students.

He was asked a question on the lack of interaction among students from different types of schools in the Gabungan Bertindak Malaysia’s annual conference today.

While defending the existence of multi-stream education, he said the system itself must be de-racialised.

“We should go back to the day when we have elected local governments, and local education authorities.

“In every local authority, the municipal council used to decide the number of Malay schools, Chinese schools, Tamil schools or religious schools needed to be built based on needs,” he said.

The former Suaram chief said that the newly-released National Education Blueprint 2013-2025 provided a “fantastic opportunity” to press for the cause as it has proposed the establishment of education precincts.

Under the concept of education precinct, the government would build different types of schools within the same area with shared facilities such as sports stadium, performance theatre and canteen.

Kua said the idea could be extended to organising interschool activities such as Malay language debates and sports day.

However, Tamil Foundation advisor K Arumugam opined that the stereotyping between students from different ethnicity was the real cause to the lack of interaction.

Relating his own experience, he said he was a graduate who came from a Tamil primary school and was not very proficient in Malay or English when he entered the national secondary school.

“But I had no problems interacting with the Malay and Chinese classmates because there was no stereotyping,” he said.

He said this was in stark contrast to the situation involving his daughters and his neighbour who spoke perfect English but refused to communicate.

He said it would take everyone’s mutual respect to each other to tear down the communication barrier.

-FREEMALAYSIATODAY