REFUGEE

Lumpur, The Malaysian Indian Congress is against the idea of having a single-stream education system, saying that the presence of vernacular schools will not hamper national unity.

MIC president S. Samy Vellu said if the idea was to foster racial unity, there were other ways to do it and not through a single-stream education system.

“As far as Tamil schools are concerned, the (Indian) pupils will be able to mix with children of other races when they go to secondary schools,” NST Online quoted him, as saying.

Samy Vellu was commenting on the issue, which was raised, by academician and historian Prof Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Kim recently.

Several government and opposition members of parliament spoke in support of a single-stream system in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister, said yesterday that he wanted all parties to pursue discussions on the idea so that all views on the matter could be explored.