Be multilingual to be globally competitive, says PM

SANDAKAN: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has urged Malaysian students to be multilingual so as to be globally competitive. He said profiency in widely used languages like English and Mandarin would give them an added advantage in the international marketplace. "As such, I encourage all Malaysian students to have multingual ability right from the school level so that this will serve them well when they enter job market or decide to go into business," he said at the ground-breaking ceremony for SM Yu Yuan's multipurpose hall here. Najib said he was not only stating this but one of his children who is studying at a university in the United States, chose to study Mandarin as a modern language to improve multilingual capability. He said the university stipulated that its students must be proficient in one additional modern language in order to graduate. "For four years he has to study Mandarin and on completion, I will send him to work in Beijing so that he can further improve his Mandarin skills. "Last year, during the summer holidays I sent him to Beijing to study Mandarin for a month," he said, adding that another of his children was studying Arabic. Najib said this way, Malaysians could succeed on the global level wherever they were. At the function, Najib said the federal government would chip in RM1mil for the hall which costs RM5mil. SM Yu Yuan, opened in 1962, is among the oldest schools in the country and currently has an enrolment of 1,023 students. The prime minister praised the school for its consistent outstanding performance as the pass rate in the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) and Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) was from 95% to 100% each year. Besides this two national examinations, the school also offers the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) which is needed to pursue higher studies in Mandarin. BERNAMA