A case on Tamil education in Malaysia: Is Tamil education being sidelined?

Abstract

This paper is a part of an empirical research that investigates the status of Mandarin and Tamil language in Malaysia. The empirical research is cleaved into three research questions and hence, three fieldworks. This paper singles out the findings from one of the fieldworks of this study and seeks to lay out and discuss the specific findings with the aim to unveil issues that surround Tamil education in Malaysia. The findings highlighted in this paper involve an interview with a principal of a Tamil vernacular primary school in northern Malaysian state. With the centre of the topic polarized around the notion of Tamil education in Malaysia, the findings obtained from the interview will be presented and discussed as to attain some ideas not only regarding the status of Tamil education in Malaysia, but also the underlying factors that instigate the issues surrounding it.