Plight of minority language in Malaysia. Why students not allowed to sit for Punjabi paper?

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A warm welcome sign for students at entrance of Punjabi Education Centre Subang, located on one of the floors of Gurdwara Sahib Subang – Photo: Asia Samachar

By Santokh Singh Randhawa | Malaysia | Letters |

I refer to the article “School blasted for not allowing students to take Tamil subjects” (The Star, May 12).

That students face difficulty in taking Tamil, one of the vernacular languages listed in the national curriculum, is concerning as minority languages which are not on the list face way too many obstacles.

Khalsa Diwan Malaysia (KDM), one of the oldest Indian NGOs in the country, was entrusted by other Sikh NGOs and the Sikh community to promote and develop the use of the Punjabi language in Malaysia. Beginning in 2000, KDM embarked on a long-term and ongoing programme to achieve this goal.

It now operates almost 50 centres nationwide that provides Punjabi language education from pre-primary to Form Five levels to more than 2,500 students with the assistance of almost 250 teachers. Besides inculcating noble values to make them useful citizens of the country, the centres also prepare the students to sit for the Punjabi paper in the Form Three Assessment (PT3) and SPM examinations.

When we first started, we had no curriculum, no textbooks, no trained teachers, no classrooms, and, above all, no money. But we persevered thanks largely to dedicated and committed people, donations from well-wishers, and in recent years, grants from state and federal governments. Today, we have a fine mechanism in place to provide Punjabi education. We have a centralised body which coordinates the teaching of the Punjabi language nationwide. We have a detailed curriculum and syllabus, we have written our own textbooks, we provide teacher development courses, we have centralised exams, we have motivational seminars for students, and we have an Inspectorate Board to ensure all centres comply with core directives. In short, we have an amazing unit that is on the right track to develop and promote the use of the Punjabi language.

The Punjabi paper has been offered in public examinations since pre-independence days in Malaya. Although it is not on the list of vernacular languages in the national curriculum, it is sill offered in the PT3 and SPM examinations.

However, year in, year out, certain school administrators choose to not allow their students to sit for the paper. The usual reasons . given for doing so are that the subject is not being taught in schools, it does not fit in the school-based assessment, and clashes in the timetable. KDM has met several units under the Education Ministry, including the Exam Syndicate, to resolve this issues. For the record, the Education Ministry has no objection to students sitting for the paper regardless of whether the subject is taught in schools or not.

Why then are students disallowed from taking the Punjabi paper? We believe it has something to do with a school’s overall performance index. Many administrators fee] that students who sits for papers not taught in their schools will fare badly in the exam, which in turn will affect their schools’ performance index. This fear, however, should not apply to the Punjabi paper. Our students have an almost 100% passing rate yearly, with more than 60% passing with distinction.

SEE ALSO: How did students fare in SPM Punjabi language? Here are the results

KDM has worked very hard to teach Punjabi through the collective effort of the Punjabi community. Our students go through 11 years of regular weekly classes at the pre-primary. primary and secondary levels. Imagine the frustration of students, their teachers and parents, KDM and the Punjabi community when a student who is well-prepared is not allowed by school administrators to sit for the Punjabi paper!

We strongly urge the Education Ministry to look into this matter with great urgency, and deal with school administrators who continue to deprive students of their basic rights, which are clearly enshrined in the National Philosophy of Education and in the Federal Constitution.

Santokh Singh Randhawa
President, Khalsa Diwan Malaysia (KDM)

(The letter was published at The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, on 14 May 2022, under the title ‘Plight of minority languages’)





RELATED STORY:

Malaysia back to face-to-face Punjabi learning (Asia Samachar, 9 Jan 2022)



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