A Short History of Tamil Schools in Malaya/ Malaysia

Author: Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja

Publisher: GRFDT

A Short History of Tamil Schools in Malaya/ Malaysia

Associate Professor Sivachandralingam Sundara Raja, Department of History, University

Malaya, siva@um.edu.my
It has been 200 years since the first Tamil class was held in 1816 at the Penang Free School, founded by Reverend
R.S. Hutchings, Colonial Chaplain of the Anglican Church. Formal Tamil schools were opened in the Straits
Settlements by Christian missionary bodies in the first half of the 19 th century. In Malacca, an Anglo-Tamil School
was established around 1850. From 1850 onward more Tamil schools were opened in Province Wellesley and in
Johor by missionary bodies such as the Ladies Bible and Tract Society, the Society of Propagation of Christianity
and the Big Missions. Essentially, the real motive behind the schools and missions were to spread Christianity and
to prove that only Christianity can uplift humankind. In so doing most of the subjects in missionary-run Tamil schools
were taught in the English language and Tamil were taught merely as a subject. During the early years of the
Federated Malay States (FMS), Ceylonese missionaries were instrumental in the development of Tamil schools.
Amongst them was Reverend Samuel Thambo Abraham from Jaffna who in 1896 assisted the Tamil Church in
Malacca Street to open up the Anglo-Tamil School in Kuala Lumpur. In 1902, the two schools merged to form the
now famous Methodist Boys School and Reverend Abraham served as its first headmaster.
The most significant push in the development of Tamil schools in the FMS was from the beginning of the
20th century when large number of Tamil laborers were recruited to work in estate plantations particularly rubber.
The colonial government considered the establishment of Tamil schools useful to maintain Indian workforce for a
long period of time. Some planters therefore started Tamil schools voluntarily in their plantations. Tamil schools
were nevertheless few until 1912 when the Labor Code Ordinance required an estate with ten children of school
age (defined as between 6 and 12 years) to provide schooling facilities. Planters were obliged to open Tamil schools
on estates, but most of the schools in the rubber estates were of poor standards. The reason is partly because of
the prevailing attitude among planters that Tamil plantation schools served mainly to attract new laborers and to
preserve the children of laborers for future supply. Planters for the most part did not observe the Code; fearing
educated laborers might demonstrate greater activism. Moreover, in most plantations there were more crèches
where children were looked after than schools. The few Tamil schools in rubber estates were constantly
undermined by various problems. Firstly most of the schools lacked proper infrastructure and teaching facilities,
which led classes to be frequently held at the verandah schools or the so-called “Thinnai Palli”. Another major
shortcoming was the lack of qualified teachers. The supposed teacher was often the kangani (Indian labor
recruiter), an estate clerk, a dresser or even a literate labor. Third, a very limited curriculum comprising for four to
five years of primary education focusing on reading, writing, arithmetic and rudimentary natural sciences. These
problems were compounded by Indian laborers themselves who considered it more worthwhile to bring their
children to assist them in the estates.
At the same time several Tamil schools were established in urban areas by individuals and religious organizations.
In 1906, the Thambhoosamy Tamil School was opened in Sentul by an individual named Rajasooria followed by
the Vivekananda Tamil School in 1914. In Kuala Lumpur, the late Swami Atmaram, a disciple of the Saivite Saint
Appar, led the Appar Seva Sangam to establish the Appar Tamil School (now being managed by a Saivite
Organization) in the early 1930s. By 1922, there were 6 Tamil schools sponsored by various urban community
committees in the Straits Settlements and 122 in the FMS. On the other hand 4 missionary-sponsored Tamil
schools and 13 estate schools were operating since 1905. As of 1920 there were a total of 4 thousand Tamil school
students in the Federated Malay States.
However, in all of these initiatives the colonial government’s involvement was minimal. The British officially
regarded the Tamil laborers as birds of passage who would one day return to India after they had earned enough.
Generally, the government was also not inclined to expend money on Tamil vernacular education and provision
beyond primary education was even thought to be unnecessary.
Under the pressure from the Government of India, the FMS government introduced the Labor Code of 1923 with
new provisions to make it made mandatory for each plantation having ten or more resident children of school-
going-age to provide Tamil schools. However, only a few rubber plantations were able to hire qualified teachers
and to provide facilities necessary to run a school. There was, nevertheless, an increase in the number of Tamil
schools in the Straits Settlements and the FMS. In 1925, 235 schools were being run in the FMS and had 8,153
students in total. By 1930, there were 333 schools for a total of 8,153 students. A small amount of federal grants
at the rate of $6 per pupil were also given to Tamil schools (based on its students’ performance in examination) as
an incentive to comply with the regulation of the 1923 Labor Code. Another significant development was the
appointment in 1930 of an overseer from the Malaysian Educational Service to supervise Tamil schools. During
the depression years (1929 to 1933) rubber-growing companies began to hire teachers for a full time wage instead
of part-time substitute teachers. However, most of these full-time teachers did not have proper teaching certificates,
mainly due to the absence of provision for teacher training program. In 1937, an official Inspector of schools with
knowledge of Tamil was appointed to oversee Tamil schools. However there was little improvement in enrollment
rate among the Tamil schools. The depression years, furthermore, saw the closing down of several estate schools.
By 1938, there were 13 government-sponsored and 23 Tamil mission schools, with a total of 22,820 pupils, in the
Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States.
The progress of Tamil schools was hindered during the Japanese occupation, from 1941 to 1945. Japanese
education policy in relation to Tamil schools was that they were to continue as before but with the Japanese
language, Nippon Go, being the official medium of instruction. The development of Tamil schools was, anyhow,
undermined due to the largely subsistence nature of Malaya’s economy during the occupation. School-going
children of Indian laborers were forced to forsake their education to support themselves. Furthermore, the
mandatory recruitment of Indian laborers by the Japanese occupiers to build the notorious “death railway” led many
to stop their children from schooling. As a result, many Tamil schools within estates and elsewhere were closed.
It is reported that there were only 292 Tamil schools in 1943 compared to 644 before the war.
After the Japanese occupation, the government of the Malayan Union (1946 to 1948) worked towards restoring
schools and it was decided that Tamil schools were to be accorded the same treatment as Chinese and Malay
vernacular schools. In 1946 the Malayan Union Council Paper No. 153 was passed under which there would be
six years of free primary education in Tamil schools. This policy led to an increase in the enrolment rate in Tamil
primary schools compared to previous years. Tamil were to be used as the medium of instruction and English as
compulsory subject in Tamil vernacular schools. Indian parents were also allowed to send their children to either
Tamil or English schools. The Malayan Indian Congress (MIC), formed in 1946, urged the government to formulate
policies by which Tamil primary school leavers would be more able to pursue their secondary studies.
A series of education reports by the succeeding Federation government (1948 to 1963) were to profoundly affect
the development of Tamil schools. In mid-1950, the recommendations of the First Report of the Central Advisory
Committee on Education, commonly known as the Holgate Report, implied the abolishment of government aid to
Tamil schools. Due to severe objection the Holgate Report was shelved and the Report of the Committee of Malay
Education followed in 1951. Better known as the Barnes Report, the implication of its recommendations was that
all Tamil schools were to close down and integrate in national schools where only Malay and English were to be
used at the primary level. In 1951, the British government commissioned the Fenn-Wu Committee to study the
educational needs of the Chinese. This development encouraged the MIC to form an education committee to study
the educational needs of the Indians. The 1952 Education Ordinance, however, suggested the abolishment of
Tamil vernacular and the establishment of English and Malay medium schools where Malay was to be taught as a
compulsory subject. The ordinance could not be fully implemented, and, thus, the Razak Report of 1956 made
some fundamental concessions. With regards the Indian community the report proposed that Tamil primary schools
were to continue with English and Malay as compulsory subjects. The Razak Report also provided an avenue for
Tamil primary school leavers to further their secondary level education through transition schools. In 1961, the
Rahman Talib Report made provisions for Tamil schools to be recognized as ‘national-type’ schools.
Tamil school generally remained a poor man’s school in the post-independent era. By 1975 Tamil estate laborers
constituted only 45% of the plantation community, all of whom were politically and economically too weak to
demand for better school and education facilities.A survey conducted by the MIC on 346 Tamil schools in 1999
shows that 104 were wood-sided buildings and few schools only had a single building. The enrolment rate in Tamil
primary schools from 1957 to 2005 was as a whole lower compared with other medium primary schools.
Consequently, the number of Tamil schools dropped significantly from 720 in 1967 to the remaining 523 today.
Most of these schools lack proper infrastructure and learning facilities including those that are necessary for the
learning of information technologies. Besides that, Tamil primary school teachers are often insufficiently trained
and sometimes only available on temporary contracts. The considerable lack of intellectual stimulation at home
and in the community further accentuates the dismal state of Tamil schools. Dropout rate is, thus, the highest in
Tamil primary schools. Furthermore most of the Tamil schools are located on private land and therefore not eligible
for a full grant from the government. The MIC too has not been able to provide adequate assistance. It was the
HINDRAF’s (Hindu Rights Action Force) campaign in 2007 that triggered the government to announce huge funds
to alleviate Tamil schools following the 12th General Election (2008). The government has also established several
coordination units under the Prime Minister’s Department in 2010 to sketch a sustainable roadmap to ensure the
progress of the 523 Tamil primary schools in Malaysia.

Publication Date: Wednesday, May 04, 2016

WHY IS THERE NOT A SINGLE
TAMIL SECONDARY SCHOOL IN
MALAYSIA?

In Malaysia right now, there’s a total of 1154 SMK schools, 78 secondary Chinese
schools and 60 Chinese independent high schools, but did you guys know that there’s not even
one secondary Tamil school in Malaysia? Though there’s about 523 primary Tamil schools in
Malaysia, a secondary Tamil school doesn’t exist for the Tamilans.

Searching high and low for a secondary Tamil school. GIF from popkey.

Hold on, so how come there are so many Chinese

secondary schools?
Now, y’all know, if you remember your sejarah that is that when Chinese immigrants came to
Malaysia, they built many Chinese schools (both primary and secondary) for their kids.

Before merdeka, Chinese schools (both primary and secondary) used Chinese language as the
medium of instruction. After merdeka, secondary Chinese schools were ordered to teach in
English while primary Chinese schools were allowed to maintain with the use of the Chinese
language.

Confucian Private Secondary School. Original photo from fingertec.

However, not all Chinese secondary schools were happy with it. Some changed and taught in
English, but created a class just for the Chinese language. But there were also other schools
that didn’t want to teach in English.
Their defiance caused the gomen to warn them that they wouldn’t be receiving any school
funds. This led to them convert into private Chinese schools, like Tsun Jin High
School or Confucian Private Secondary School.They were also lucky because there was
a whole community that supported the usage of their mother tongue.

So… what about Tamil secondary schools then?

Actually, building a secondary Tamil school is a lot

harder than you’d think!
Some of y’all might think, why is so difficult to build a secondary Tamil school when there are so
many primary Tamil schools already?

The Indian community started building their own schools in estates to educate their kids.
Although it wasn’t as great as the English-medium schools, it was ok-ok lah for the Indian kids.
The teachers in those schools weren’t actual teachers also. Estate workers who were
educated or either the clerks who worked in the estates were the teachers.

Photo from memegenerator.

You see, the Indian community fought alongside the Chinese community to safeguard their
mother tongue as a medium of instruction in schools. At that point, only primary Tamil schools
existed because the Indian estate workers preferred bringing their child to work rather than
sending them to school.
As for the official reason for why there isn’t any Tamil secondary school, we…
actually…. couldn’t find one online. But we did find out that the Education Act 1996 implied
that it’s mandatory for the minister to provide “national-type” (a.k.a. Chinese and Indian) primary
schools, but never mentioned that for secondary education.

N AH , B AC A:
A boy was killed by a falling office chair, but smaller sampah are just as
deadly. Here's why.

Anyway, we then spoke to a few primary Tamil school and secondary school teachers to learn
more about the matter, and found that building an ideal Tamil secondary school is A LOT
harder than we thought.

Firstly, the Malaysian education policy needs to be changed so it would include the
establishment of secondary Tamil schools in Malaysia:

“Indian people never fought as hard as the Chinese people did for a
school before Malaysia was formed. Even now, some parents pull out
their kids out of school at the age of 9, 10. Plus, it’s not easy to build a
Tamil secondary school.
Education policy has to be read through, adjusted and
reformed to legalise the establishment of a Tamil
school. Many aspects need to be discussed when you want to build a
school that uses a different medium for the first time in Malaysia.”- A
secondary school teacher from Ipoh

Secondly, we’ll need people to CREATE a whole new syllabus with new books and all:

“We need people to write textbooks for Tamil secondary schools.

Even Tamil primary schools face a shortage of textbooks. Certain
content from SK textbooks are translated to be added into Tamil
school textbooks. Where are we gonna take the syllabus from?
India?
To do so, there needs to be a committee to approve a properly
executed syllabus for the schools. We also need quality exercise
books. It’s very difficult these days to even find books for
Tamil primary school students. I’m not saying it’s impossible to
build a Tamil secondary school but there’s too many aspects that
need to be taken into consideration.” – A Tamil primary school
teacher from Kuala Lumpur

Thirdly, there aren’t many jobs that utilises the Tamil language:
“Indians parents aren’t as supportive as the Chinese parents are
when it comes to school matters. Also, students that do study in
Chinese secondary school have many job opportunities. If you do
learn all the subjects in Tamil language, there are not many job
opportunities.
As far as I know, you could be a Tamil school teacher, lecturer,
newspaper editor, radio deejay, news reporter or maybe a translator
if any companies need a Tamil-speaker. There’s not many jobs
that fully utilises the Tamil language so we really need to
think about the kids future before a Tamil secondary school
is built.” – A Tamil primary school teacher from Selangor

And lastly, some Tamil parents don’t even support the language:

“It’s easy to ask for a Tamil secondary school but a lot of aspects need
to be checked before the idea can take off. Even if we receive the
government’s support, it’s very important for the parents to support
this cause too.
These days, you have Indian parents sending their children to SK
and SJK(C) schools because of the mindset that Tamil school teachers
are lazy. When you have parents who don’t encourage their
children to learn basic Tamil language, how will a Tamil
secondary school receive support in the future?” – A
secondary school teacher from Kedah

People have tried to get a Tamil secondary school,

and are continuously trying.
Lim Guan Eng, Chief Minister of Penang, had actually sent three application letters to the
gomen in 2013 asking for a secondary Tamil school in Penang. All three of his applications
were rejected since there’s no law that provides for a secondary Tamil school.

The reason a secondary Tamil school was requested is because the population of Indians in
Bagan Dalam, Penang is 24% (in 2014) and the existence of a secondary Tamil school over
there would be very helpful for the Indian community.

In fact, he’s not alone in this. There are quite a few groups out there who are also supporting the
idea of a secondary Tamil school.

The Penang Hindu Association (PHA) sent a message to PM Najib asking the gomen to build a
secondary Tamil school. They realised parents are reluctant in sending their children to primary
Tamil schools when there’s no secondary Tamil schools for the kids to continue their studies.
They also submitted a petition with over 10,000 signatures to the gomen.
In 2014, the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) urged the gomen to provide a secondary Tamil
school for the Indian community as it’s their right as Malaysians. They went on to say that it’s not
fair for the Indians to not have a school that operates under their mother tongue while the other
communities do.

SJK(T) Appar. Original photo from tamilschool.org

The Malaysian Indian Network of Entrepreneurs (1MINE) came up with an idea to build one
Tamil residential schoollike MRSM or MARA. This type of school will help parents with low
income as proper education and food will be provided in this school.

Some like New Gen Party and a number of Indian civil society groups proposed for a private
secondary Tamil school. As the gomen rejected the application for a secondary Tamil school
because there were no provisions, there are provisions for a private schools. The process will
be somewhat similar to Chinese independent high schools with the building, funding and also
deciding on a committee to put together a curriculum.

Makkal Sakti Party has also applied to the gomen to build a secondary Tamil school in Sungai
Siput, Perak. These people quite fast because they already received a 10-acre land and now all
they have left is the green light from the gomen.
So does that mean there’s a possibility for a
secondary Tamil school in the future?
There’s no definite answer to this as there’s quite a lot of pros and cons when it comes to
building a secondary Tamil school in Malaysia.

Photo from memegenerator.

Not all are onboard with this idea…. Some are against this idea because there’s the worry that
students may not be as efficient in Malay or English as students from secondary Malay or
Chinese schools and this might potentially leave them jobless.

Actually, just try searching for Chinese-speaking and English-speaking jobs in JobStreet.com.
We found that there were up to 1,036 Chinese-speaking and 1,330 English-speaking jobs
offered. Some of the jobs required the employee to be fluent in Malay too but we were shocked
to see only SIX jobs were offered when we searched for Tamil-speaking jobs wei! Plus, the
scary thing is that unemployment rate of Indians in 2015 was 4.3% compared to the average
Malaysians which was 3.3%!

Whereas you have some who do support the idea of a secondary Tamil school because in a
way, building a secondary Tamil school will safeguard the Tamil language and give the
community what it deserves.

Overall, ugais, it’s up to the gomen to decide upon establishing a secondary Tamil
school. Though, if the time ever comes for a secondary Tamil school to exist in Malaysia, we
hope it receives the support it needs.