Riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of Malaysians who tried to march to the national palace yesterday to protest the use of English to teach math and science.
The demonstrators sought to submit a petition to the country’s king to demand that the national Malay language be reinstated in schools for the two subjects — a sensitive issue for the ethnic Malay majority.
Many Malay teachers and linguists complain that a six-year-old policy of using English has hurt efforts to modernize their mother tongue and to develop a scientific lexicon in Malay.
The protesters had marched through traffic for about half an hour after gathering at Kuala Lumpur’s main mosque when police fired tear gas, causing them to scatter.
Authorities warned people earlier this week not to attend the demonstration, saying organizers had not obtained a necessary police permit to hold a public rally. No injuries or arrests were immediately reported.
English was once the medium of instruction in schools in Malaysia, a former British colony. Nationalist leaders reversed the policy and made Malay the main medium of instruction less than two decades after independence in 1957.
In 2003, believing that poor English-language skills were undermining Malaysian students, authorities started a program to resume teaching math and science in English. Other subjects continued to be taught in Malay.
The government began a review to gauge the policy’s success last year.
But protracted discussions with teachers, parents and political activists have so far achieved no clear solution.
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