MELAKA, Jan 17 (Sin Chew Daily) — The parent-teacher association at SJK(C) Poh Lan in Tangga Batu, Melaka, decided not to implement the Year 4 Jawi calligraphy module at the school after a meeting with the Malay parents.

The PTA chairman told the media that out of the 31 Year 4 students at the school, 19 are Malays, and 12 are non-Malays. All Malay parents agreed to go ahead with the teaching of Jawi at the school while non-Malay parents said "no" to it when they returned the questionnaire forms.

The PTA invited the parents of all 19 Malay students to a meeting on Wednesday night, and four of the 11 parents at the meeting expressed their willingness to change their minds after a lengthy discussion lasting more than an hour.

"Only one parent did not return the questionnaire form and we treat that as 'no'.

"So in the end, we have 16 'no' and 15 'yes'."

The PTA chairman also said a PTA meeting was subsequently held on Thursday, in which it was unanimously agreed that Jawi calligraphy would not be taught at the school.

He explained to the 11 Malay parents that most Malay students had religious lessons after school and they should have a far better understanding of Jawi than the three pages of introduction in the BM textbook.

He also explained to them that there were only eight periods of BM in SJKCs and the teaching of BM would be affected if the teachers had to spend time introducing Jawi calligraphy to students.