Cheryl Ann Fernando, who heads a school leadership training project, said there was no correlation between national unity and vernacular schools.

“There is no evidence showing that if we abolish the vernacular education system, we can achieve national unity. That is just a simplistic argument that does not hold any truth,” she said in a panel discussion on whether education is a force to unite or divide.

Human rights activist and educationist Kua Kia Soong suggested for the Malaysian education system to be integrated instead of vernacular schools being assimilated.

“These schools with different languages can be grouped together under one precinct where they share facilities such as IT room and sports centre together,” he said.

Kua called for a shift in national affirmative action from a race-based approach to one that is needs-based. He believed it was one of the factors that contributed to the brain drain in Malaysia.

“For example, the Bumiputera policy in civil service is definitely driving people away.”

Jason Wee, co-founder of Architects of Diversity Malaysia pointed out that there had been no substantive data that affirmative action in education had produced its intended results

“We don’t have data and we don’t know if studies had been done on affirmative action. However, one thing for sure is that exclusive access to education is a form of discrimination,” he said.