Responding to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s call for students’ English proficiency to be strengthened, Annuar said a dedicated law on this would prevent flip-flops in education policies, particularly on the teaching of English in schools.

“Personally, I request for the strengthening of the use of English to be enacted as a law in Parliament. In that way, there will be no reversal in policies whenever there is a change in education minister.

“I also propose that Malaysian students be required to be proficient in both Bahasa Melayu and English, in addition to another language of their choice. That is the way forward,” he said, according to The Borneo Post.

Annuar praised Anwar’s call and said it showed that Putrajaya was now “starting to agree with Sarawak” on the importance of the English language.

He also rubbished the claims of certain quarters that emphasising English was unpatriotic, saying such arguments should be put to rest.

However, he said the federal education ministry needed to ensure that there were enough quality English language teachers to improve students’ proficiency in the language.