MARCH 27 — Let’s assume for a moment that the debate pertaining the existence of vernacular schools is settled — this hypothetical government has decided that it’s time to shut them down. Taking into account the current political climate, how do you think we should go about it?
That was just a thought exercise. But seriously, has anybody really given it much thought? The recent Dong Zong rally puts the issue of vernacular schools back into our national discourse and probably with an amplifier considering the election is supposedly around the corner.
The central issue raised was the failure of the current administration in dealing with the acute shortage of Chinese-educated teachers for the Chinese vernacular schools. It was insinuated that this was part of a larger ploy to force these schools to change their medium of instruction and thus setting off the domino effect of its demise.
This led me to the question that I raised at the beginning. If indeed this were a genuine ploy, I would have to say that it is indeed a very comical strategy. I don’t see how “starving the beast — slowly but surely” could ever work. We know for sure that vernacular schools aren’t merely a formal education system to their proponents, they are a sceptre of cultural identification and perpetuation.
ooppss!!...they are too demanding and too much!!
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