PETALING JAYA, Nov 5 — Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has labelled politicians who object to progressive educational reforms but send their children to private schools as "hypocrites” who are damaging the country’s education system.

In an interview with Malay Mail recently, the Muar MP said these politicians — who he did not name — are creating a system where the richest Malaysians have access to quality education while the poor are being left behind.

"The same people who say I’m hurting Islam and Malays when it comes to our education system, are the ones who are sending their children to private schools, international schools, heck, even tadika in France (or) going to boarding school in UK, in Eton College,” he said, using the Malay word for kindergarten.

"And yet they’re saying, ‘Don’t shake the system’.”

"I think that’s the biggest hypocrisy in Malaysia, and I think we have to fight these politicians to ensure that we reset and shape our system for all Malaysians,” he said when met at his office in SS1 here.

Examples of reforms that Syed Saddiq said he supports are extended school hours to focus on core subjects including English and Mathematics, and allowing students to begin on the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programme earlier.

Currently, students are allowed to begin on TVET in Form 4, however, the government said in August that it is mulling introducing TVET in Form 1.

Syed Saddiq also proposed an "ambitious plan” for the government to subsidise the purchase of digital devices for all students from families in the bottom 60 per cent of the income group, to ensure that these students are not left behind from online learning resources.