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Fatimah: English just as important
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<p id="content_1_TopHeadTextByLine" class="">by <a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/Authors?q=%22Yu+Ji%22">yu ji</a></p>
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<br><img src="http://www.thestar.com.my/%7E/media/Images/TSOL/Photos-Gallery/sarawak/2015/11/26/metd_pc_2611_page2_pchoo_1.ashx?w=620&h=413&crop=1&" alt="Fatimah (second from right) speaking to Sarawak Society For The Deaf president Albert Wong and other members on the planning for the Malaysia Deaf Games, which will be held in Sarawak next year."><p class="">Fatimah
(second from right) speaking to Sarawak Society For The Deaf president
Albert Wong and other members on the planning for the Malaysia Deaf
Games, which will be held in Sarawak next year.</p>
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<div class=""><p><strong>KUCHING: </strong>Sarawak’s
Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister indicates the state will
not back down from its English as the second official language policy.</p>
<p>Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who keeps a watching brief on education for
the state as the matter falls under the purview of the Federal
Government, said the Sarawak government wanted as many people as
possible to be bilingual or better.</p>
<p>“I also don’t see how learning two languages well would make us less
patriotic. I ‘sayang’ Sarawak, I love Malaysia,” Fatimah said yesterday.</p>
<p>Pressed for more comments, the minister replied she did not want to repeat the criticism of others whom had sparked negativity.</p><div style="float:left;width:100%" id="content_1_inlineAd" class="">
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<p>“We never said we should not use Bahasa Malaysia. In fact, look at
the Malaysia Education Blueprint – both languages are stressed. Here, we
are trying to do something we hope will provide the right environment
for everyone in society to realise the importance of English,” Fatimah
said.</p>
<p>She added that it made sense to encourage the state civil service to
be English proficient as Sarawak was wooing more international
investment. “We encourage foreign companies to come here. We emphasise
the Sarawak Corridor of Renewal Energy. One way to improve is to be
multilingual.”</p>
<p>Fatimah was speaking to reporters after a briefing on the Malaysia Deaf Games, which will be held in Sarawak next year.</p>
<p>It was the second time this week Fatimah had defended Chief Minister
Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s English as an official language alongside Bahasa
Malaysia policy.</p>
<p>On Monday, when opening a Asean rural and indigenous education
seminar, Fatimah, who was a school principle before becoming a
politician, said Adenan had shown “political will” on the English
policy.</p>
<p>“It has been stated clearly by the CM. Once it is stated, we know
where we stand, then we can plan,” she said, adding that without
political will, no politician would have wanted to push through such a
matter.</p>
<p>The state government had requested Teacher Education Institutes to
give special consideration to prospective rural trainees on English, she
said.</p>
<p>An institute in Miri has begun taking in more Penan school-leavers to train them to become English teachers.</p>
<p>On a related matter, five Penan villages in Tutoh-Apoh area in Baram
would have new purposed built kindergartens next to their longhouses.
The in-community early childhood centres are being funded by Petronas
upon the state’s requests.</p>
<p>“Had we waited for normal (funding) procedures, then the longhouses
would have had to wait. Since we wanted to provide the longhouses access
to early childhood education faster, we negotiated with Petronas and
manage to get allocations for the first five years (of the programme),”
Fatimah said.</p>
<p>Funding for the kindergartens will eventually come from the Community Development Department.</p>
<p>In Sarawak, there are over 16,000 Penans in 130 villages, mostly around Baram in Miri and Belaga in Kapit.</p>
<p>The pre-school project by Petronas is for the Penan villages of Long
Jenalong, Long Kerangan, Long Leng, Long Kawa and Long Selulong, all
along the Sabah-Sarawak gas pipeline.</p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/Metro/Community/2015/11/26/Fatimah-English-just-as-important-Ministry-hopes-to-provide-right-environment-for-everyone-to-realis/">http://www.thestar.com.my/Metro/Community/2015/11/26/Fatimah-English-just-as-important-Ministry-hopes-to-provide-right-environment-for-everyone-to-realis/</a><br></p></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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