Salaam Friends,
The school holidays have just ended, a new year have come, and I hope you are well. With every new year, everybody will be drawing up resolutions and posting it up on their blogs. I happen to come across a teacher’s blog, in which she made a resolution to help show her students the difference between situations that would need formal use of Malay, and those that will be great with casual use of Malay. I think this has got something to do with her students handing in assignments written in Malay SMS lingo..
Which brings me to a thought:
Read the Berita Harian and you’d see that when readers, teachers and Malay Language experts write in to lament about the deteriorating concern, usage and quality of the mother tongue among the young, they’d usually refer to the youths; the msn-blogging-social-networking generation who text message faster than they speak. The thing is, with all this concern about instilling awareness of the language and putting zest back in the learning of the language, one group is seemingly being ignored — the young, young children in primary school and kindergarten.
The pressure of excelling in the English Language, Maths and Sciences, and also to perfect their command of English, the global language of science, business and innovation, is also pressing to the children in our primary schools and kindergarten, a time where the foundations of the subjects are being learnt and mastered.
So why is it that when there are activities to inject zest back into the Malay language, why is it that these initiatives are more often than not, focused on those on secondary school and beyond, that our little brothers and sisters are… left out?
As much as we want to make learning more engaging and interesting for those whose interest and passion in Malay have already been jaded, we should also, at the same time, nip the problem in the bud. Teenagers are increasingly less concerned with Malay Language and its usage, or so it had been reported. Therefore we should examine what happens before that, before the teenagehood, and how we can salvage what happens in that ‘before’ period in order to alleviate whats happening now, to those in the ‘after’ period.
In true Singaporean style, spicing up the learning of the Malay Language requires a ‘helping-hand approach’. Sure, the teachers are the formal educators of the children, but we all have a part to play in this. Don’t we all have siblings, neighbours, relatives who are still blissfully in their childhood? Who we can reach out too? We should use that to our advantage and make it happen.
Many have claimed the youth are spoiling the Malay language. I’m sure many youths out there, like myself, know that we do not do that and we don’t condone it. So lets not only prove them otherwise, but also show to them that we care, and that we can do something about it.
In a recent speech to student leaders from institutes of higher learning, Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Education & Ministry of Home Affairs, called for more activities catered to primary school students in an effort to promote and strengthen the use and learning of the Malay Language. The audience, who were members and leaders of student bodies and organizations, nodded in agreement and presumably, have taken their cue.
This year ahead, and the year after, is definitely a time parents, teachers and the primary school students themselves should watch out for. There’ll be something in store for them…
On another note, Happy New Year! And may you have a great year ahead. =)
Best Regards,
Farah Nadia Jamalludin
The President
PBMUKS
P/S: PBMUKS will be organising the annual oratorical competition for primary school students, ‘Cakap Petah’. Watch this space!
