No one said Tamil schools should be closed down and no one needs to ask for Tamil schools to be closed down. The true situation is that, Tamil schools are closing down by itself and nobody is noticing this. Outlined below are some facts and observation for the readers benefit.

Table-1 indicates the gradual decrease in Tamil schools in Malaysia.

If language maintenance of Tamil does not occur in another 10 to 20 years to come, Tamil may die off naturally; speakers could become bilingual, younger speakers become dominant in another language, and the language will die. It is a kind of death for Tamil school to see their children shift to another language. Statistics on Table-1 shows that we had 1000 over Tamil schools in this country before independence and today we are only left with 524 or only 374 schools actually functioning.

There are 250 more Tamil schools waiting to be consolidated or in the verge of closing down, this means there will be only 124 Tamil schools left. What will happen then? Who is responsible for this and why has this gone to this stage? If this continues what will happen to the Tamil language in this country and what will be left?

The information revealed is somewhat worrying that more and more Tamil schools are being closed down. Of the 527 schools, 467 schools are owned by estate owners or built on private owned land. If the estates are sold for development, the schools on this private land will be closed. Is the Indian community aware of this situation or is anyone keeping tab of these Tamil schools.

One of the main reason is because facilities at most of the Tamil schools are very poor and the conditions are very pathetic which also leads to lack of student enrolment. Therefore it would be difficult to see talents coming out from Tamil schools. Most of these schools don’t even have proper fields; badminton court and toilets don’t even have doors. And recently, a Tamil School have collapsed. What happen if a few pupils have died? Getting sentimental about Tamil school is not going to save the Tamil language. What should we fight for? Should we fight to save the Tamil language or allow Tamil language die a natural death together with the Tamil schools in this country? Statistics speaks for itself and we should not be blinded by sentiments.

Table-2 Enrolment of less than 150 students in Tamil schools in 2002

Statistics on Table-2 shows that the enrolment in 149 Tamil schools was lower then 50 students for 2002. Today most of the estate owner’s are employing foreign worker to do their daily work thus the number of Malaysian Indian family’s living in the estate have been reducing drastically or they are moving out to urban areas forcing the closing down of Tamil schools in the estate due to lack of students.

The government’s policy is that they won’t build any more new schools however the government may relocate schools or upgrade the facilities of the present schools.

Currently there are about 60 to 80 thousand Tamil reading people who buy the Tamil dailies out of 1.7 million Indians. Far too many Indians cannot read or write Tamil and do not speak Tamil well.

Table-3 indicates comparison between Indian children’s studying in Tamil schools and those studying in National school.

As at year 2002 student enrolment for SJK(T) LDG SUNGAI PAPAN, Johor is only 8 pupil average one (1) student per class and in SJK(T) DATO SITHAMBARAM PILLAY, Perak is only 25 pupil an average of four (4) students per class. SJK(T) TUN SAMBANTHAN LADANG SUNGAI SIPUT, Perak has got only 51 pupil an average of eight (8) students per class. What more in this 21st century, when we have146 Tamil schools without telephone lines or contact with the Ministry Of Education.

Tamil should be read and written by the entire Tamil population of the country. Tamil should not be limited to Standard 1 to 6. It should be thought up to form 5.

This indicates that 421,342 or 4 out of 1 child is deprived of learning Tamil because Tamil is not a compulsory subject in National School.

Don’t let your children ask one day why my father, my grandfather and great grandfather did not do anything to save the Tamil language in this country.

Therefore to save the Tamil language in this country we need to make amendments and must make sure that Tamil is made a compulsory subject for the Tamil in the National schools first.

What should we do to save the Tamil language from vanishing from this country?

Make Tamil language a compulsory subject in National school from standard one to standard 6 and form one to form five, while Tamil schools continue to function.

In conclusion we should not be blinded and pretend that all is ok and be afraid to speak the facts and face the truth.