KUCHING: Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) Betong’s non-Muslim students and their parents were dismayed when they were informed that it was compulsory for them to take Arab language.
The MRSM Betong non-Muslim students were also told that they must score a pass in the compulsory subject to earn their graduation certificates. PKR Betong branch chairman Vernon Aji Kedit said the matter was brought to his attention after the MRSM Betong students were told by their lecturers last week about the new requirement.
“This announcement has caused dismay with many non-Muslim Dayak students and their parents who see this as another step in the slippery slope of Islamisation of a secular Sarawak,” he told The Borneo Post today. He estimated that about 60 per cent of the students at MRSM Betong were non-Muslim.
Vernon, who is state PKR information chief, said after he brought this issue up in social media, he was later informed that MRSM Betong then clarified with the students that they had an option to take Mandarin if they did not want to take Arab.
He added that this contradictory message to the students of MRSM Betong was misleading and confusing.
“I, therefore, ask the Education Ministry at Federal level and the Education Department in Sarawak to clarify on the situation by giving the public a written explanation of what the status is regarding compulsory subjects and languages in all MRSM colleges in Sarawak within two weeks from today.”
Vernon also wanted the relevant authorities to explain what actually happened at MRSM Betong and if it was a unilateral decision made by the college authorities to mislead the students into thinking that Arab was compulsory and tried to impose an optional subject on them.