'Incorporate minority languages into education system' - Pandikar Amin

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin hoped that education policy makers would consider incorporating ethnic minority languages into the country's learning system.

He said the languages of miniority groups including those in Sabah and Sarawak needed to be preserved.

"Language can unite a country as aspired by our government. Ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak are also part of the backbone of harmony in Malaysia," he told reporters on Wednesday.

He earlier launched a Heritage Language Learning Forum for Preschoolers at Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Likas here.

Pandikar said research findings by experts abroad proved that students who studied in their mother tongue tended to do well in their education.

Meanwhile, he said the languages of ethnic minorities in Sabah such as Iranun, Bajau, Kadazandusun, Rungus and Hobian were becoming extinct because there had been no efforts to preserve them unlike traditional costumes and music.

He also said parents should send their children to preschools or nurseries where their own native language is also used as a medium of instruction.