Kash’s World

In mid July this year, I wrote a letter to Malaysiakini. The letter is reproduced below. It was a quick comment on the subjects of education and Tamil schools.

I meant to make my points and add to the debate there. What I didn’t know for some time was that a blogger had commented on my letter in his blog. This is what I love about the Internet as you never know where something you start can land up.

But because it was the Internet, that writer did not know me personally and therefore did not know where I was coming from when I made the points. That led him to make many erroneous conclusions. What he did was that he generally decided my world view and launched an attack on my views. Obviously the chances of him misunderstanding me were high and so he did just that.

Anyway, now that I have some free time, I am able to make a response. That will follow in the next post but rest assured I’m far from upset. Along with the many advantages of the Internet, you have to accept some of its failings. It also gives me a chance to clarify my position.

The letter that started it off…

Will vernacular education protect culture? Kashminder Singh | Jul 17, 08 4:34pm

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Tamil schools: Whose responsibility? MIC’s or government’s?

I refer to the ongoing debate on Tamil schools and in general, vernacular schools. I understand that this is an emotional issue and many people feel strongly about the whole concept of education in the mother languages.

I can also understand and agree with the need to preserve the positive aspects of our own rich culture. However, I am not sure that the issues of education and preservation of cultures need to be tied together.

For example, it may be helpful if the parties concerned can be a bit dispassionate and see how these issues are being addressed in other parts of the world.

With the obvious disclaimers that I am no expert in this field and that I have not done full research, I believe that different approaches elsewhere have not led to many detrimental damages to people’s love for their culture and roots.

Let’s look at Singapore. On the ever helpful Internet, I came across a short history of Tamil schools in Singapore. In the final paragraph it says:

‘After 1955 greater recognition was give (sic) to all vernacular schools by the government; from 1959 equal treatment was accorded to all streams of education.

‘Later Tamil parents preferred to send their children to English Schools and this move brought about the closure of all the Tamil medium schools in Singapore. The last to close was the Umar Pulavar Tamil School in Maxwell Road.’

If this is true, there appears to be no Tamil medium school in Singapore or at least, not many. The big question to be answered then is if the non-existence of Tamil medium schools in Singapore has led to the disappearance of Tamil culture in Singapore.

I don’t think so, judging from what I see when I travel there.

I believe that Singaporean Tamils have used other means, and apparently quite effective means, to preserve their culture and language. At the same time, by joining the mainstream education system, Tamil students there appear to me to have done as well as their peers.

The US is another place where Indians have migrated to and they have studied in the English-based education system there without many of them compromising their culture.

Of course, in both these countries, those who decided to adopt other values have done so too. But then again, I am pretty certain that the same happens to some segment of those who study in vernacular language schools in Malaysia.

I reiterate again that everyone involved needs to be a bit dispassionate and examine if maintaining Tamil schools (and yes Chinese schools too) is the only way to preserve the community’s rich heritages.

While doing that, they also need to consider if that approach may actually be detrimental to the future of the very children these champions of vernacular education obviously care so much about.