A Chinese vernacular preschool is expected to receive 25 Malay students as new entrants next year, prompting concern over how teachers will manage students who have primarily communicated in Bahasa Malaysia since young.
The teacher said having 25 Malay pupils in a single intake is considered a significant number, noting that they could form an entire class without any Chinese students.
The issue is, how are teachers supposed to teach them?”
Difficult to conduct Chinese-language lessons
According to a report by mStar, the teacher worries that if a class has about 30 students, it would be difficult to conduct Chinese-language lessons effectively.
“Subjects that are taught in Mandarin such as Science, Mathematics, and History — how will those be handled? It is certain that these Malay students won’t be speaking Mandarin.”
He believes this situation may be linked to the declining birth rate within the Chinese Malaysian community.
Netizens agree
Netizens echoed his concerns, saying such scenarios are becoming increasingly common. Statistics also project that the Chinese birth rate this year will be around only six percent.
‘This year is even worse… The Statistics Department estimates that only about 6% of newborns are Chinese. I predict that in 10 to 15 years, all SJKC schools will be closed and converted into national schools.’
“As a Chinese person, I’m also not sure what the main cause is. But many people want to be childfree. These might be the reasons:
- Marrying too late (above 35–38, many women feel like they don’t need kids anymore)
- Not getting married at all, working until old
- Registering their kids in international or private schools
- The cost of raising children is too expensive, so most settle for just having 2 kids
- There are fewer Chinese in Malaysia now because many have migrated to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, or the US.
‘Malaysian Chinese are having fewer children. But instead, they’re importing people from mainland China here.’
