TAMIL Foundation Malaysia has rejected the teaching of khat calligraphy to Year Four pupils, saying no consensus on the matter was reached during a meeting with the deputy education minister yesterday.

President Thiraviam C. Maruthai said there is a difference between exposing pupils to khat and making them learn it.

“In the Year Five Bahasa Malaysia textbook for vernacular schools, there is a section on Jawi, Tamil and Mandarin. This is to introduce to pupils what the characters look like.

“If it is to expose them to the characters, we have no issue. But we disagree with the teaching of Jawi and khat,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

He was clarifying the outcome of the meeting with Teo Nie Ching, which was also attended by Chinese education groups.

Dong Zong, or the Chinese United School Committees’ Association, earlier today said no consensus was reached to accept khat’s inclusion in the Year Four BM syllabus for vernacular schools next year, contradicting Teo’s statement.

The group said it wants more discussions to take place before the move is implemented.

Teo had said the meeting agreed that the intention behind the move was to introduce khat to pupils, and not for them to learn Jawi.

Thiraviam said Teo told the meeting that the khat segment would be like “learning art and how to draw”.

“If it is art, then why isn’t it under the Arts syllabus, which is a subject (on its own)?”

He added that the deputy minister also said she would convey the meeting participants’ views to the cabinet.

“We don’t know what the outcome is, and we will wait for what the cabinet has to say. If they decide to go ahead with it, we will oppose. We have our policy, and we will stick to it.”

Thiraviam said they were told by Teo that the textbook with the updated syllabus has yet to be printed.

“Teo said she will call all stakeholders for a meeting before it is printed to get our feedback.”

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, in a statement, said khat should be taught under the Arts subject instead.

It said the ministry should draw up programmes that unite, not divide, Malaysians.

“At this critical juncture, there are more important issues to be tackled.” – August 7, 2019.