‘Tamil schools on par with Chinese, national counterparts’

GEORGE TOWN – Penang’s special committee on Tamil schools has urged Indian families in the state to support their vernacular primary schools following a drop in student enrolment in recent years.

The committee’s deputy chairman Datuk K. Anbalakan said there is a glaring reduction in enrolment. 

Thus far this year, the student enrolment for Year 1 was just around 800 pupils, compared to an average of 1,200 in the last few years, he said.

There are 28 Tamil primary schools in Penang, of which 11 are in Seberang Prai.

The state is also willing to accept one more school, which is likely to relocate to Butterworth as its original site only has one student enrolled in Kedah.

Anbalakan said that Tamil vernacular schools here are on par with their Chinese and national schools’ counterparts although the medium of instruction favours Tamil.

“We still teach different languages, and for strategic subjects our instruction is still in Bahasa Malaysia. We also teach English, so parents need not be unduly worried,” he said in an interview.

Schools in the state have also undergone the necessary upgrading to be competitive with allocation of computers, laboratories, and social amenities for the students and teaching staff alike.

“We have supplied the schools with the computers to enable them to acquire the knowledge in this age of digitalisation and the Internet of Things,” Anbalakan said.

All this would augur well for the Tamil schools here, he added.

So, he stressed, he does not see any reason for parents to shun Tamil schools here.

Anbalakan reasoned that parents may not be keen to enrol their children as the majority of the 28 schools here are in the estates, with limited access in semi-rural localities.

“Also, many Indian families have relocated after the commercial farming estates here were closed to make way for the development of housing estates, which then grew into new townships,” he said.

There is also the dwindling Indian population in Penang, as the community has dropped from 11% to 6.7% in the past decade.

The population base in Penang is believed to be around 1.8 million, although the state is also home to many residents from neighbouring states who come here to work but head home on the weekends.

Anbalakan said that the teachers are motivated to educate the children but there is a need to cast aside the perception that the vernacular school system is struggling.

A string of Tamil schools in Malaysia, including some in Penang, gained awards and distinctions for academic achievements over the past year.

At the International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition held in December last year, several Tamil schools from across the country swept 19 gold medals, eight silver medals, two bronze medals, and seven special awards.

The exhibition, organised by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society, saw participation by 121 teams from 12 countries.

A total of 29 teams from 12 Tamil schools from the Klang Valley and Penang, as well as students from a secondary school and Maktab Rendah Sains Mara, which are former Tamil school pupils, participated in the exhibition.

In September last year, The Vibes had reported on the issue of declining enrolment being cited as one of the root problems surrounding Tamil schools, and the government’s pledges to relocate them to areas with higher Indian populations – The Vibes, March 15, 2022