National primary schools in Malaysia will start teaching the languages of Mandarin and Tamil next year to allow students, especially those of Chinese and Indian descents, to learn their mother tongues.

Malaysian Education director-general had been directed to implement such policy from 2010, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said during a question and answer session at a talk series held near Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Muhyiddin, who is also Malaysian Education Minister, said that parents will be allowed to decide if they want their children to study the languages at the schools.

One of the uniqueness of the country's education system is that besides national primary schools, there are also the so-called national-type vernacular primary schools where classes are conducted in the languages of Mandarin and Tamil respectively.

Both types of the schools are run and administered by the Malaysian Education Ministry.

Muhyiddin said that the move could also unite Malaysians as the Malaysian government believed that more students of different races in the country will be attracted to study at the national primary schools.

For the initiative to be carried out smoothly, Muhyiddin said more teachers will be provided for the national primary schools.

There were some 1,290 Chinese and 520 Tamil national-type primary schools in Malaysia in January 2010.

While most of the Chinese parents enroll their children in the Chinese primary schools, the Indian parents will usually opt for the Tamil primary schools.

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2010)