What has given to this plight?

1.    Generation gap

2.    Social mortality :       - Changes in employment opportunities

                                       - Non availability of Telugu schools

                                       - Proximity of non - Telugu schools

3.    Inter marriges

4.    Herd instinct :          - English medium (better prospects)

                                      - Tamil medium (teachers post )

5.    Leadership by example :        -TAM leaders children to non Telugu medium schools

6.    Individual greed/necessity and selfishness

7.    Media                    - Electronic –Tv/radio

8.    Teachers                - Shortage

                                     - Not qualified

                                     - Disappoinment (poor attendance)

                                     - T&L not effectice

 - Lack of punctuality

 

9.    Students                 - Attendance poor

                                     - Lessons not interesting

                                     - Non exam subject

                                     - Non encouragement from parents

                                     - Place,time and day not suitable

                                     - Too many subjects  

                                     - Transport problems

                                     - No commercial value

 

10.    Parents Examination        - No commercial value

                                                - Lack of activities

                                                - Inconvenience

 

11.    Policies                            - POL GB/PK/contract teachers cannot teach

                                                - 15 children at least

                                                - Saturday holiday

 12.    Schools                           - No cooperation

                                                - Information not disseminated properly

                                                - Non- exam subject

 13.   Textbooks                       - Not available

- Even available,it’s not attractive

 14.  Love towards mother tongue

 15.   Telugu Association of Malaysia                      

                                                - Not proactive

                                                - Not much emphasis on language

- Non sensitivity to education acts: 1956,1960,1996           

- Too much time and energy spent on activities other than 

   languages and culture.

 

There are other situation that are deteriorting Telugus :

1.      There are new proposals and calling for Chinese and Tamil to be made compulsory.As it is only Malay and English are the compulsory subjects to be thought and teach in public examinations irrespective of the medium of instruction.The MCA is calling for the Chinese language to made compulsory in secondary subjects to students graduating from Chinese primary schools.

 

2.      The PPP ( People’s Progressive Party ) President senator datuk M.Kayveas has called for English,Malay,Mandarin and Tamil to be made compulsory in all vision schools.

 

Dwindling Telugu population :

Indian Population in Malaysia 1921 - 2000

Ethnic/year 1921 1931 1947 1957 1970 1980 1990
Tamil 387,509 514,778 460,985 634,681 746,558 425,448 1,112,907
Malayalees 17,190 34,898 44,339 72,971 44,199 34,864 44,215
Telugus 39,986 32,536 24,093 27,670 31,332 26,113 34,615
Other S.Indians - - 15,968 - - - -
Other Indians 25,495 39,635 54,231 84,934 34,137 32,284 44,815
1.

Telugu classes and student population :

Telugu - medium primary students        :      20

POL Classes (primary & secondary )   :    282

Students                                              :    302

Adult students                                     :    134

                                                               436

 

 

Strategies to solve the problem :

 

1. Balvikas classes

2. Adult classes

3. Pupil own language classes (POL)

4. Effective teaching - learning methods

5. Language camps

6. Cultural/recreational activities

7. Awareness campaigns -Dialog,seminars,discussions workshops,family day  

   gathering,Ugadi and other festival cards.

8. Get support from the government,political,non-governmental and religious bodies.

9. Publicty : Bookmarkers,electromedia,massa media

10. Recognition ceremony

11. Mahila wing

12. Youth wing

13. Time donations

14. Community/religious centres

15. Compettion : Essay,dancing,sports,games,concert,examination