Visit to Simpang Lima, Klang Tamil Primary School on July 29, 2013

Eighteen people gathered at Simpang Lima Tamil School in Klang. Among those from the ‘Inclusive development and urban poor community’s action research group’ were Datuk Vaithilingam, Prof KS Nathan, Edward Devadasan, S.Ramesh & Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria. Others present are members of the local PIBG committee or local civil society.

Simpang Lima Tamil Primary school  is the largest Tamil primary school in Malaysia with 2,425 students and 109 teachers. It has an impressive passing rate of 69.63 passes in 2012 UPSR results.

It has a very strong Parents-Teachers Association which is now an increasing experience in many Tamil schools. The PTA (PIBG) chairman, Mr R Ramachandran gave a power-point presentation of the developments in the school and how they have tried to change the image as well as the teaching-learning experience for students. The school headmistress Ms Kogilavany Kanapathy is also very supportive of community participation and support for the school development.

The school has established a School development team that is developing a conducive learning environment and they are targeting 80% passes for UPSR. They also have a target to ensure their students’ progress from primary 6 straight into Form 1 thereby skipping the Remove by reaching the minimum language requirements.

Some challenges

While this school has made achievements and is now recognised by the Ministry of Education as a Cluster school, they do experience many challenges. Three key challenges were highlighted.

Firstly, due to limited space there have to run two sessions. The Standard 1 to 3 is in the afternoon and standard 4 to 6 is in the morning. There is a restriction in how the school can enable student development and therefore they have been making plans for a second school to be established in the Taman Sentosa, Klang area where about a 1,000 students come from.

Second, is the lack of special rooms for specific teaching –learning like science labs, they have only one lab for such a big school. This year’s UPSR batch is 392 students in 11 classes. Like this they need more space for others rooms like for computing and music.

Thirdly the average class size is about 40 to 45 students. This is too large especially when some of the students need more support and attention.

Social issues among students from Taman Sentosa, Klang

About a 1,000 students from Taman Sentosa go to Simpang Lima Tamil school as there is no Tamil school. This neighbourhood is the low income neighbourhood with many dysfunctional families, youth related issues and urban poverty especially among female headed households who are single mothers.

Dr K.Balakrishan who runs an NGO and has a community centre at the Taman, highlighted some areas of concerns. He also highlighted that there are 12 NGOs especially hindu based and religious, organising centres and projects. However they do not effectively network among each other. Each is doing a small project and not relating to the other. Therefore it is not making a decisive impact on the community

It was pointed out that the density of Indian families is very high and during festive times the area is very Indian especially during religious and cultural events like ponggal. The people here seem to have isolate themselves from other communities and fail especially to relate to the Malay community. This has negative consequences. Therefore some appreciation of diversity and capacity building is urgently necessary.

The issue of alcohol abuse among adults and young was highlighted. A major area for community concern is public drinking in the night at community fields, leading to fights after drinking which is impacting the image of the community. Crime is high and the Indians are attacking and robbing their own community

Urban poverty is a major area of concern with a large number of single mothers. Young people coming from this area have some difficulties in their studies and also behaviour problems. These two groups definitely need support and assistance. Some families have children without documentation and due to this problem they are unable to go to school.

The discussion concluded with five key pointers for follow up action:-

First, that the Simpang Lima school has achieved much and we must document and make this a model and benchmark for others schools. We have been very impressed with work done. We recognise more needs to be done and that the school-PIBG   needs the full support of the community at large. We must speak highly of our achievement so as to inspire other schools to make similar achievements. Good news could be further disseminated through social media like Malaysiakini, Free Malaysia Today and Malaysian Insider.

Second, the matter pertaining to the building of the newly approved school at Taman Sentosa needs to be followed up. Federal government has approved and budget allocated and hopefully it will be implemented soon. Prof NS Rajendran who is coordinating this matter and he needs our support. More needs to be done for Ministry of Education to execute it with haste.

Third, that a meeting be convened with the 12 NGOs conducting social programs or having centres at Taman Sentosa. This meeting will be coordinated by Datuk Vathilingam through the Hindu Sangam to see how there can be joint cooperation and action for maximum impact. Dr Bala and S. Ramesh will assist in this process.

Fourth, that there will be a discussion held on the alcohol abuse issues and what appropriate follow up measures/action organised including policy advocacy, counselling and rehabilitation issues. While the matter was highlighted in Klang area, the issues are being experienced at the national level especially in a majority of urban poor locations/neighbourhoods. Dr Denison together with S.Ramesh will enlist other NGOs and groups to organise a discussion on this theme. It was suggested that Mr Arun Doraisamy of NIAT who has done some work in this area could also assist.

Fifth and finally what can we do to address the issues and concerns of those who are academically weak and socially challenged especially youths from Taman Sentosa and other parts of Klang. Mr Edward Devadasan who has done is masters on this theme at USM could explore with the Simpang Lima school some immediate measures. This team which include other Indian youth organisations like MIYC and HYO could also identify children and young people without documentation who are not in school and who are at high risk to anti-social behaviour.

Notes prepared by Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria

July 29, 2013