THE number of teachers in Tamil schools has dropped by 281 over the last two years, Makkal Osai reported.
Prof Datuk Dr N.S. Rajendran, who is leading an action committee promoting Tamil schools in a special campaign, said the numbers were based on Education Ministry statistics.
The report stated that in 2018, there were 9,154 teachers in Tamil schools in the country. The figure dropped to 8,873 in 2019.
He said amid campaigns by Tamil education activists to increase enrolment in Tamil schools, there was concern that pupil and teacher numbers would drop further this year.
Prof Rajendran said the falling numbers in Tamil schools were generally blamed on lower birth rates in the Indian community, but this has seemingly not affected the Chinese community which has a lower birth rate.
In 2018, he said Tamil schools saw its enrolment drop from 81,488 to 81,321.
He said Tamil education activists expected the numbers to tumble significantly in 2021, with the number of pupils enrolling for Year One “worrying”.
The declining numbers will also affect teacher allocations, said Prof Rajendran, a former director-general of the Unit for Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community.
The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
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