P Kamalanathan
KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will reprint Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Year Five history textbook to amend some errors in the book.
Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan said the decision was made after receiving a report by a History Textbook and Curriculum Reference Expert team on the matter.
“There were six leading historians involved in the expert team to look into the claims and perception. The ministry responded to the matter upon receiving reports, not only in the media but also from official channels. The ministry will also correct and reprint with slight improvements to facilitate pupils to comprehend the matter,” he said when replying to a question by Oscar Ling Chai Yew (DAP-Sibu) at the Dewan Rakyat proceeding here yesterday.
Ling had enquired on the ministry’s action on reports against the SJKC year five history textbook which was said to contain 80 mistakes, including facts on the Japanese Occupation.
Kamalanathan said the review found only nine issues mentioned as a large portion of the matter raised were not wrong as they were based on facts.
Replying to a supplementary question by Ahmad Nazlan Idris (BN-Jerantut) on the re-introduction of caning in schools to instill discipline among school children, Kamalanathan said the ministry had been holding dialogues on the policy and the methods of dispensing caning into six zones in the country, beginning March until May this year.
“The dialogues were aimed at obtaining the views of interested parties on the re-introduction of caning … all views will be taken into consideration in the final draft of the 2015 Student Discipline Education regulations,” he said. — Bernama