Fadhlina: Malaysia to teach Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese as elective languages in schools to boost Asean ties

GEORGE TOWN, April 21 — Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said Malaysia is expanding its elective language offerings in schools to include Asean languages like Thai, Khmer, and Vietnamese.

Speaking at the Empowering Education Summit 2025 here, she noted that Malaysia’s bilingual foundation in Bahasa Malaysia and English is now evolving to support regional collaboration.

“To harness this, we must ensure our young people are multilingual, adaptable, and culturally competent,” she said in her keynote address.

She said the summit’s theme — “Shaping Asean’s Future Through Skills and Innovation” — is timely and urgent, as over half of Asean’s 670 million people under 35.

“This demographic advantage is a unique asset but it can just as easily become a liability if we do not act decisively,” she said.

She cited an Asian Development Bank report showing nearly 60 per cent of jobs in the region face disruption from automation by 2030.

“Yet, too many students are still learning through rote memorisation and outdated curricula,” she said, adding that education must move toward creativity, critical thinking, and lifelong learning to remain relevant.

Fadhlina said Malaysia is aligning its reforms with the Asean Work Plan on Education, focusing on curriculum reform, teacher development, and industry-linked technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

She said the revised secondary school curriculum (KSSM) emphasises digital skills, while the DELIMa platform supports wider access to digital learning.

Over 100,000 teachers are being trained in digital pedagogy through partnerships with Google, UNESCO, and local universities, she added.

TVET programmes are now co-developed with industries, especially in Johor and Penang, where E&E firms are shaping semiconductor training pathways.

Fadhlina said Malaysia’s National AI Roadmap is integrating AI into classrooms as a learning tool, alongside expanded STEM initiatives for underserved students.

To bridge the digital divide, she said hybrid solar-powered classrooms and satellite internet are being introduced in 180 remote schools in Sabah and Sarawak.

Fadhlina also touted the new National Child Development Centre in Putrajaya as a regional model for high-quality preschool education with an emphasis on cognitive development, nutrition, and teacher training.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/202...ean-ties/173883

Teach peasants language for what , we already have dominant economy language,

English, Bahasa (Indonesia), Chinese (China), Tamil or Hindi (India), total up super power d

English quality so crap want to learn other languages

kek

alright not bad not bad

can find Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese moi liou

English, BM, Chinese, Bharat

Teach all our students these four languages already can tapau nearly every country liao.

With malaysian chinese and indian population dwindling down, vernacular schools will close shop by itself.

Just be patient.

TS still frog in the well, equating vernacular school to language. You might as well go attend language center, same thing right?

To teach Asean language mist import first hggnghh teachers

Interested to learn Thai... where can i sign up?

owai. gov sponsor and paid right

No they won't. Chinese schools are owned by different group of entities....not KPM. They will always find ways to continue maintain the school

melayu - kebangsaan
english - global language
mandarin - 2nd most spoken language globally

thai/vietnam - buat pa, bukan nak cari thaimoi atau vietmoi ...

Which menteri sohai came out with the idea

Waste resource on sohai idea.

Education ministry.

Dengar boleh, percaya jangan

Remember maszlee vision about swimming class

Malaysia minister talk without think through
Manatau all clap when she gv the speech seem well received. Actually is.....

As long as it does not effect existing Mandarin or Tamil language classes i am fine. If they touch existing classes hell will rain upon them

TS, how is your thread title relevant to post 1 article? Minta pencerahan

mind as well bring back DLP

TS seems to think that vernacular school = learn 1 extra language. Quite obvious TS is not from vernacular school and dunno what he's talking about

Education racism

instead of compulsory chinese, they make more languages no people want to know.

What's with your hate towards vernacular schools TS?

lel
Look into wikipedia, SPM examination offered more than both language above beside bahasa melayu and english.

Have you forgotten Sabahan & Sarawakian bumi native language????

learn thai and viet
useful at Hat Yai and Saigon

And how does that make our education level-quality better in STEM subjects? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Vernacular will close down in the future, make no mistake. Especially with number of Chinese will half by next generation. So go learn your mother tongue while you can.

Honestly these are some of the ugliest language i have heard... the way they talk is so rude. Similar to Korean Language.

Massat in those country got discount if I can speak their language?

this more like want malay student to learn more languages

got nothing to do with vernacular school

Low birth rate sees Taiwan close 14 schools in 2024: MOE
https://focustaiwan.tw/culture/202412290009

ម្តាយរបស់អ្នកមានពណ៌បៃតង

Apa kerancauan ini....no teach mandarin n tamil....teach other language?

I use Google to translate.

Thats already good enough.

Asean gang
Inb4 can cari vietmoi easily

apa kesohaian ini

Don't worry, Non-Type-C also supporting vernacular schools now.

Speaking at the Empowering Education Summit 2025 here, she noted that Malaysia’s bilingual foundation in Bahasa Malaysia and English is now evolving to support regional collaboration.


Mandarin? lol

This should have been electives LONG AGO

Where is Indonesian and Tagalog?

no wonder a tard

others i dunno, but not Thai though

I would say Thai is one of the softest and most polite to the ears

want learn mandarin cakap jer

Malaysia will discuss with regional leaders to make Bahasa Melayu or Malay as the second language of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

From having other countries learn BM reverse to now learning other countries language??

Thai and Viet ?

This post has been edited by ze2: Apr 22 2025, 04:00 PM

You gotta be kidding. Do you know how many students enrolled for Chung Hwa Jalan Ipoh this year for Form 1? IINM there are bout 15 classes.

Stop living in a bubble. You see ONE school and this represents the entire nation? Go look at the fertility rate by race shared recently. Its below 1 for chinese. Meaning when 2 pass away you can't even replace the 2 with one. Birth rate is 0.7. That's more than 50% reduction of population

Eventually you will not have enough to start vernacular school. Of course there will be some forward looking malay and indian willing to learn, but they will not go out of their away to fight for it when political pressure comes to unify education.

This post has been edited by killdavid: Apr 22 2025, 04:13 PM

join those submit ofcoz hv to wayang abit la..

makin bebal menteri pendidikan ni

It is about time to prep the next gen to work as foreign workers in vn, indon, cambodia and thailand.

Khmer????????????????????

WTF IS THIS SHIT??????????

go learn scam ah

Our PMX desperately wanna become ASEAN taikor.

our national education roadmap should focus primarily on knowledge and skills that will be relevant for the kids future.



This post has been edited by alanyuppie: Apr 22 2025, 04:31 PM

Truly, Malaysia is a country of racist.

These electives have many upsides to improving SEA relations

I am sure those countires will teach their students the 2 important international languages Mandarin & English. Eventually Asean people would be able to communicate with each other.
But some supremist/racist here look down on vernacular schools while many of their type r embracing sjkc in increasing numbers knowing their importance.

Im just giving you an example. There are not many vernacular schools in the country already but I can tell you the ones I know like Kuen Cheng and Chung Hwa and another one in Klang has many enrollment.

The nons will just have to fight for it no matter what when time comes.




First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

This post has been edited by TOMEI-R: Apr 22 2025, 04:41 PM

wonder how many will sign up for khmer

That was Sabri's wishful idea. also bcos he can't speak any other language well except malay.

everyone knows stupid people dont argue with gomen

thats why our schools are getting worse

Wacist statement

Tunggu yitu report button /k wallop sama lu

Mak ai, i tgk budak India/ Malay struggle belajar kat SRJK (C ). Dorg langsung tak faham Cikgu ajar dlm kelas. Bahasa lain, tunggu sekolah menengah je la.

Some bangsat oredi shout want close vernacular skool

Yini mao ajar foreign worker language pulak


Ayam konpius

dont know TS comprehension failed or what

Vernacular school 404 at all

and...what fucks this article trying to tell?

Lala land people.

still open???

Rahmad, who is education, higher education and religious affairs committee chairman, said the decision to engage with SJKC Simpang Bekoh was because the school is categorised as “under-enrolled”,

with just two Chinese, nine Malay students and seven teachers.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...dmiral-cheng-ho

more bi and bc would make more sense, but you know lah. this is msia.