“This matter has been debated for many years and we are still debating the issue,” the minister said.
He said if the peninsula was not ready yet for English medium schools, then Sabah should be allowed to start it first.
“It is ridiculous to suggest that speaking English will make us abandon Bahasa Malaysia, or become less patriotic,” The Star quoted Rahman as saying during the launch of the English-For-Employment Programme (E4E) at Cosmopoint College here yesterday.
Rahman said he had broached the subject with the prime minister, the Sabah chief minister, as well as his cabinet colleagues since first raising it on April 22.
He said most of them were supportive of the proposal.
“However, to get this going, we have to do some tweaking with the Education Act, but not the Constitution.”
He urged Sabahans to get their respective elected representatives to support the proposal.
“I need the people of Sabah and Sarawak to support this proposal, and hopefully the whole of Malaysia,” he said.
Rahman said competency in English would increase the marketability of graduates who would be better poised to meet the demands of the globalised workplace.