Education minister Fadhlina Sidek said the engagement session was aimed at understanding the needs of all parties to comply with the guidelines and reaffirming the policy of elevating the Malay language and strengthening the English language.

“We want to emphasise that the guidelines must be complied with. That is why the engagement session is very important as it allows Penang JPN to provide an explanation (on the matter). The engagement session is also an ongoing process.

“Feedback from the engagement session conducted by Penang JPN with the relevant stakeholders was very good,” she told reporters after a family day event in Bertam, here.

She was referring to the issue raised by the school boards and parent-teacher associations of 11 national-type secondary schools as well as Chinese secondary schools in Penang asking the education ministry to respect the wishes of parents and return to the original intention of DLP in science and mathematics.

DLP is a programme under the policy of Elevating Bahasa Malaysia and Strengthening English (MBMMBI) which gives schools the option to use English in science and mathematics subjects.