Forum: Give more consideration to local Tamil language graduates in teacher recruitment
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I refer to the report “ More signing up to teach mother tongue languages; still a challenge to recruit local Tamil teachers”
Most of the modules have been developed by subject experts in Tamil Nadu in India. As such, the programme is comparable in standard to that offered in universities in Tamil Nadu.
I still teach Tamil language trainees at the National Institute of Education (NIE) as a part-time lecturer with the Asian Languages and Cultures unit. I noticed that there were only a handful of students from SUSS in the post-graduate diploma programme. Sixteen years have passed since SUSS graduated its first batch of Tamil language students, and yet it appears we still do not have sufficient local teachers from SUSS.
I remain in contact with my former SUSS students who are interested in teaching Tamil and yet they are not successful in their Ministry of Education (MOE) interviews. Some said they had attended at least two or more interviews but were not selected.
As part of my NIE responsibilities, I go to schools to observe NIE trainees when they do their practicum. Several relief teachers confided to me that they have been doing relief teaching for a few years, and yet they failed to be selected in their interviews.
While I am not saying that all who have a degree must be selected as they are also required to meet other criteria, I do wonder if the degree offered locally is considered substandard by the MOE.
Shanmugam Kadakara
