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ARTS education advocates in Tamil schools are convinced that music combined with the Tamil language can help children to absorb what they learn at primary level in school and develop listening skills.
“Music is an ideal tool for communication and language,” Selangor Tamil Schools’ former supervisor K. Murugan said.
“We hear and process all languages as sound first and then process the sound as meaning or as language. Our aim now is to use music in the teaching of the Tamil language to encourage children to read more, listen intently and write creatively,” he said.
Murugan said this at the launch of the Malaysian Education System Transformation Innovation (Mesti) Programme by Deputy Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk M. Saravanan.
Saravanan said using music to teach Tamil school pupils was a good effort.
“Our first batch of 170 Tamil school teachers will be taught the basic Mesti programme where they will impart listening, writing and reading skills to pupils through the language class.
“For the initial programme we will spend RM64,000 on 15 schools,” he said at the launch.
Saravanan said that after a six-month period, an assessment would be carried out to measure the effectiveness of the teaching method and the skills mastered by the 3,500 pupils.
“We want to extend this workshop to all Tamil school teachers and for this to be possible we need at least RM500,000. I will request for financial assistance from the Federal Govern-ment,” he said.
Saravanan said pupils from Year One to Five would benefit from Mesti.
