KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry has no issue with schools that have fully implemented the Dual Language Programme (DLP).
Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the guidelines established on the DLP remained unchanged to this day.
"The guidelines remain as it is. For schools that have implemented DLP at 100 per cent this year, they can continue. There is no problem with it.
"We will start with one non-DLP class starting next year," she said during the winding-up session of the debate on the 2024 Supply Bill at the committee stage for the ministry in Dewan Rakyat today.
She said in response to Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin who earlier in his debate expressed apprehension among parents regarding the DLP on account of its ambiguous policies on the subject.
Fadhlina also emphasised that DLP was just a programme, and there was no need for anyone to worry about it.
"Also, we have other programmes and approaches to strengthen the students' English language proficiency," she said.
Previously, the New Sunday Times reported how parents of Year One pupils in four schools recently protested over the Education Ministry's stricter DLP conditions which required a minimum of one full class per school learning the subjects in Bahasa Melayu as a "prerequisite" for DLP classes.
They are questioning the need for the Education Ministry to now push for "stricter" DLP conditions that required a minimum of one full class per school learning the subjects in Bahasa Melayu (BM) as a "prerequisite" for DLP classes.
This requirement, seven years after the DLP programme started in 2016, has led to an overnight shift for some students, who are now required to study the subjects in BM instead of English.