Kuala Lumpur, July 1 (IANS) The Malaysian government plans to recruit more Tamil and Chinese language teachers from next year to fully implement its Pupils Own Language (POL) policy in 7,000 primary schools nationwide.

This is to boost the profile of national schools and cater to parents and students who want Tamil and Chinese to be taught in schools.

Multi-racial Malaysia is home to significant Indian and Chinese ethnic minorities. A bulk of the 1.7 million Indians are Tamils.

Community leaders often complain of inadequate facilities to learn Tamil and preserve the Tamil cultural heritage.

The announcement was made here Wednesday by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the education minister.

Yassin said POL catered not only to the expansion of knowledge but also to the fostering of unity.

He admitted that although the POL policy was in place, it had yet to be implemented.

The Star newspaper quoted unnamed sources from the ministry as saying that only 511 primary schools had the teachers who could teach either one, or both, of the languages.

There was "no time to waste" as Malaysia urgently needed to produce "the right human capital that would drive the economy to the next level of development", Yassin said.