By Bhagwant Singh | Opinion |
I grew up in Singapore, in my childhood and my early years I saw myself to be actively involved in Sikh youth programmes. At 16 I was the secretary of our local Sikh Naujawan Sabha. I graduated from the University of Singapore in 1974. In 1978, I worked with a number of colleagues and formed a Sikh youth organisation called Sikh Sewaks Singapore. This organisation became a registered society. The objects of the organisation were to encourage Sikh youth to actively participate in the development and management of community activities with the view to develop confidence and a sound understanding of Sikhism, Sikh values and to foster the development of a community spirit among the Sikhs of Singapore. It was based on taking a balanced approach that placed equal emphasis of Sikh traditions and gurmat and the role of the individuals in the wider society both locally and internationally.
I studied physics at Singapore University and have worked in the field of science communications(also referred to as public understanding of science) from 1980 to 2004 and then taught Science and Mathematics at the secondary level until 2017. I have worked in community projects that included Nagar Kirtans, Sikh Family Sports Days and served on gurdwara committees. At present I work with a team on a project called Feed My City, which operates under the banner of a newly registered charity called the Manchester Sikh Foundation. The work of the foundation has four areas, responding to food poverty, supporting education and career development, promoting wellbeing and fostering religious harmony through education and contributing to multi and interfaith projects.
I have an interest is Sikh affairs and often have deep concern about the trajectory of what is currently happening in our community and our institutions and where they would be taking us as Sikh community both locally and elsewhere in the world. This brings me to the issue I like to address in this short article.
I understand that there is a continuing decline in the number of pupils undertaking such courses not just in the UK but also among Sikhs in other parts of the world. This represents a very potent threat to the dilution of Punjabi culture and with that access to the teachings of our gurus. We are in this situation even though a number of well qualified and enthusiastic individuals in our community have worked very hard to promote the teaching and learning of Punjabi thorough the gurdwaras and at a small number of Khalsa Schools. It is essential that we take stock of where we are both locally and at the international level so that we can have a clear picture of where we are succeeding and what we can do better to ensure that the learning and usage of the Punjabi language does not continue to decline and go into oblivion.
We need to identify opportunities and also create a platform for the sharing of good practice and successful creation and implementation of curriculums in different parts of the world. Some good work has work has been done in Bangkok, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and the United States. In Bangkok, for example, we have the only CIS recognised International School run by the Sikh community. The Asia Samachar is doing a fantastic job as a platform for Sikh matters. We should share information of these successes among our community leaders in different parts of the UK as a source of inspiration and resource for the content of the programmes that we can adopt. More importantly look at the models of the provision so that the educational activities do not become victims of the annual cycle of change of leadership in the gurdwara or become a matter which is not a priority of the community when the officials lack the expertise to deliver the product.
I also recognise that funding is an important issue. I reckon this can be addressed by working on this at the international level. For a start we need to get a university like Oxford or Cambridge to offer the GCSC and A level examinations. We need to at the same time work on ensuring that there are sufficient candidates to make the examinations viable. In Singapore the O and A level examinations are put together in Singapore and are accredited by Cambridge University. They have fully developed curriculum from Year 1 to 10 and then onto A level. Their story and path to reach that position is something we could learn from. On the issue of funding by supporting Punjabi learning here and internationally we should be able to get help from business community in our cities and abroad with a programme that will work students both here and abroad. This can be achieved through collaboration and partnerships.
We need to adopt a vision to provide every Sikh child the opportunity to learn to read, write and enjoy Punjabi and also have access to a course in Sikh Studies. The selling point is that this will provide them with 1.5 GCSCs on top of what they will do at school. This will be supported by adequate supply of trained personnel and support materials to ensure that we deliver top quality courses. In addition, we should have opportunities for healthy competitions on poetry writing/recitals, drama and story writing competitions at the local and national level. To make progress we need to engage the Sikh TV channels and work in the development of online courses and facilities that use latest technologies to provide access to material to people of all ages and with the wide range of interests and abilities. The course offered by Harvard University on Sikhism is an example of what can be done at tertiary education level.
We should use our existing resources and personnel at the various centres and universities to organise local, national and international platforms to develop programmes and facilities that will promote learning, publications and research relating to Punjabi and Sikh studies. I am aware of some work already being done at Wolverhampton University.
I apologise if I am doing too much wishful thinking. I feel we do have the people in the UK and in other parts of the world who are doing a lot of good work who can build on this and can do much more. I am certain the combined effort and sharing of experiences in this field will help in a big way. We should now formulate a plan of action which has a bottom-up approach in terms of generating participation in the learning of our mother tongue supported by organisational effort in rewriting their missions and strategic plans to be focused on supporting the formal learning of Punjabi language while making that Universities, colleges and schools offer relevant courses and examination boards offer the examination on Sikhism and Punjabi language at the O/GCSE levels and A level.
(The author is now based in Manchester, UK)
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How did students fare in SPM Punjabi language? Here are the results (Asia Samachar, 23 June 2021)
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