Malaysia is the only country which has large number of Tamil schools outside of India. In 2000, there were 89,175 students enrolled in Tamil Schools and currently there are 108,000 students studying in these schools. Within the past decade, the Tamil Schools have recorded 21% increase in enrollment.
If we look back, in 1957, there were 880 schools and today, there are only 536 schools. Of these, 154 are fully-aided; 369 are partially-aided. One of the largest Tamil Schools in the country, SJK (T) Simpang Lima, Klang accommodates 2407 students. However there are 159 schools with poor enrollment of less than 50 students. The breakdown is as follows:-
- In 13 schools, there are less than 10 students
- In 56 schools, there are less than 25 students
- In 90 schools there are less than 50 students
Though we have 108, 000 students studying in the Tamil schools but on an average there are only 201 students studying per school. According to the Ministry of Education, the most expensive schools to be maintained are Tamil Schools, if we compare against the cost of education per capita of Indian students. Besides the poor students’ enrollment, among other problem faced by Tamil Schools were infrastructure, untrained teachers, poor accessibility, and lack of ICT education and language problem.
Important Facts to Know about Tamil Schools
RM 241.7 Million to upgrade Tamil School Infrastructure
The government allocated RM 241.7million to upgrade 336 Tamil schools in the past year years. A total of RM90.1 million was provided under the RMK9 for the renovations of Fully-Aided Tamil Schools, and RM 151.6 million for Partially-Aided Schools. As a result:-
- 72 received totally new buildings
- 43 were enhanced with annexes
- 221 schools were renovated
As of to-date 211 schools have been completed, 86 under construction and 5 are in planning stage. In addition RM 10 million was allocated from the stimulus package to ensure the newly built schools equipped with adequate furniture.
Trained teachers
The Cabinet committee agreed that teachers in Tamil schools should be fully trained and that sufficient seats should be provided to train the temporary teachers to become permanent. Currently, there are 9,072 teachers, of which 1,055 are untrained or “Guru Sandaran Tidak Terlatih” (GSTT), including 239 graduates. Between 2008 and June 2010, a total of 521 teachers have enrolled in “Kursus Pendidikan Lepasan Ijazah” (KPLI) and 215 in “Kursus Pendidikan Lepasan SPM” (KPLSPM) Tamil Option. In terms of training GSTTs, in November 2009, 100 teachers were admitted into KPLI/KDC, whereas 150 joined KDPM/KDC. Seven teacher training colleges (out of total 27) provide Tamil option, and, at present, 111 graduate and 473 non-graduate GSTTs are following Kursus Dalam Cuti (KDC) at these colleges.
BM and English Teaching
Currently 10 hrs of English and 16 hrs of BM are taught in a month at Tamil Schools to improve the command of both these languages and subsequently reduce the dropouts and number of students in remove classes
ICT education
In total 468 schools have internet access, 367 have computers set up in the offices under the “Pembestarian Sekolah” scheme, while 157 schools have proper ICT labs. NGOs have agreed to visit the schools to evaluate the status of the ICT implementation of the schools and assist the schools in ICT tutorship and ultimately help to increase the computer literacy amongst the Tamil school students.
Plans for the Future of Tamil Schools
1Malaysia Hostels
Currently, there is a hostel in Titiwangsa as a forerunner which was built under the one Malaysia concept. It will be utilized for the purpose of accommodating students from the estate and poor families with household income below RM1500.00. Priority will be given to students from estates and urban poor areas, which come from broken homes. Further to this, 30% of the total seats are to be reserved for Indian students.
Converting partially aided schools to fully aided
In total, there are 369 partially aided schools, In 3 years from 2006 to 2009 , 8 Tamil schools were converted from Partially aided to full aided schools because the lands belong to the estate owners were surrendered to Ministry Of Education (MOE). The land owners have assigned 5 acres of land to the MOE and the parents have agreed to the conversion. 11 more school have been identified and awaiting clearance in terms of land and ownership. Some of these schools need to be relocated from the estates which has poor enrolment to densely populated Indian areas. The progress at all the above areas is very slow and is hampered by the fear of any closure of the school which will mean the loss of their licenses. The Government has assured that new schools can be opened when there is a demand and they will not limit number of schools.
Dissolving the remove classes
Around 29,000 students from Tamil Schools and Chinese Schools attend Remove Classes. Such classes stigmatize the students and create an inferiority complex among them, leading to higher number of dropouts. It also fails to integrate the students according to grades.
Tamil School Development Board
Currently, Tamil schools do not have a Board of Trustees and sometimes do not either own land required for the schools. Recruitment of teachers is not controlled leading to 1,055 untrained teachers and possibly unqualified. Currently, the funds for Tamil schools is split between EPU, Public Works and MOE, unlike Chinese schools where the government is comfortable to provide the schools to directly fund each school. To mitigate all the above issues, the government is studying the proposal to form a Tamil Schools Development Board comprising of personnel from government and private sectors. This board will be responsible for the closure of the poorly enrolled schools and open new ones where there is demand. The board will also be consulted by Ministry of Education on the School Curriculum and the qualification of teachers.
What can you do to help our Tamil schools
- Join the Adopt the school campaign
- Become the Board of Trustees and actively take part in the Parent-Teacher Associations
- Assist the headmaster to organize extra curriculum activities and help acquire sufficient land for Tamil schools
- Encourage students to get involved in sports – to nurture young talents
- Make a public donation to make the Tamil school self sufficient / self sustaining
source:
http://www.myindians.com/TamilSchool.aspx
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