A significant milestone
This year marks the bicentenary of Tamil education in Malaysia.
ON Oct 21 1816 in a small classroom at Penang Free School, a tiny group of students attended the first formal Tamil language class in Malaysia.
In 1897, the first Tamil vernacular school – SJK(T) Jawa Lane – was built in Seremban, Negri Sembilan.
Fast forward to 2016 and you have 100,000 pupils being taught by 10,000 teachers in 524 Tamil vernacular schools throughout the country.
This does not even include the national schools which conduct Pupil’s Own Language (POL) classes.
Tamil schools have been making a name for themselves in the sciences and mathematics, especially over the past two years.
Just last month, three Tamil schools bagged the gold, silver and bronze medals at an inventors’ competition in Indonesia.
SJK(T) Ladang Buloh Akar from Perak won a gold medal and a Special Award at the International Young Inventors Award 2016 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Se lang or’ s SJK(T) Kajang picked up a silver medal while SJK(T) Mentakab, Pahang, came home with a bronze.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk P Kamalanathan says: “We have created a lot of success stories as far as Tamil education is concerned.”
“We have developed so much that today, the syllabus used in all Tamil schools is truly created by Malaysian teachers,” he says, adding that Malaysia came up with its own syllabus in 1956.
Way back then, Malaysia “imported” the syllabus, pedagogy and teachers from Tamil Nadu, India.
Now, he says, we’re “exporting” our Tamil language syllabus and content all the way to Europe.
He explains that Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Education Ministry in Switzerland in March.
“The entire module and syllabus for UPSI’s Bachelor in Education (Tamil Language) is being used by the Swiss to teach the first degree for teachers teaching Tamil language in Switzerland.”
“If you look around the world, I must say that Malaysia is at the forefront of Tamil language development and this is because the Government has provided the facilities, support and encouraged the continuous development of the language and the schools in this country,” he adds.
“Even Unesco has recommended that a child’s early education is best taught in their mother tongue,” he says.
Proof of the Government’s commitment in developing Tamil schools can be seen in the latest Budget 2017 announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last Friday.
Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said that RM50mil has been allocated for the improvement and maintenance of Tamil schools and another RM10mil for preschool development.
Kamalanathan says that a new Tamil vernacular school is currently being built in Klang while the construction of another two are expected to start before the year end in Johor and Kedah.
All these schools will be equipped with the latest technological infrastructure to ensure the students study in the best learning environment.
Public intervention
Although the government has played a role in developing these schools, they would definitely not be where they are today if it was not for the help provided by the public.
Brickfields Asia College Education Group managing director and EduNation founder Raja Singham Sukumara Singham says that Tamil schools can continue to be stars in fields of science and mathematics if given the necessary support by both the government and, more crucially, the community.
Hence, in conjunction with the 200th anniversary of Tamil language education in Malaysia, EduNation launched its free online content in Tamil for primary school students.
“We h have an idea of providing accessiucation ble education to everyone,” he says. Content that covers the entire Malaysian school syllabus is also available in Malay, English and Mandarin. This way, Raja Singham says, all schools will have access to quality content online, so long as they have the infrastructure to support it. “Whiile there are a lot of debates about vernacular schools and the need for verr nacular schools, we cannot deny that Tamil schools fulfil a very important role,” he adds.