Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email PENANG: Enrolment at Chinese primary schools in the country has increased by almost 80% since independence, although the number of such schools has gone down.
Chinese education activist Loot Ting Yee said there were 1,342 Chinese primary schools with 361,208 pupils in 1957 compared with 1,288 schools with 636,124 pupils last year.
Comparatively, he said there were 2,198 national primary schools with 442,477 pupils in 1957 compared with 5,774 schools with 2,298,808 pupils last year.
Loot is chairman of the Lim Lean Geok (LLG) Cultural Development Centre that promotes Chinese education.
He is also the former vice-chairman of Jiao Zong (United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaysia).
He said that one of the reasons why the enrolment in Chinese schools had increased was due to the change in the medium of instruction in schools from English to Bahasa Malaysia.
“Many parents send their children to Chinese schools so that they could learn three languages,” he added.
Loot said Chinese primary schools currently faced a shortage of 2,000 to 3,000 teachers.
