Patani-Malay Teaching Initiative Brings Hope to Children of Deep South
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Despite
the escalating violence in the country`s deep South, the directors of
four schools in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are hopeful that the next
academic year will bring higher enrolment in their kindergartens, thanks
to the introduction of some major changes in educational practice into
their classrooms.
"Using
Patani-Malay as the language of instruction from kindergarten to grade 1
will spare little children from the confusion and fear of having to
learn in a language that is not their mother tongue - central Thai,"
said Apisith Laeha, director of Narathiwat`s Thairath Wittaya School 10,
his alma mater, during a recent working session on the idea at the
Mahidol Salaya Campus in Nakhon Pathom.
The
director has 33 years of experience behind him and was administering
Narathiwat`s Ban Hua Kao School until three years ago, when it became
one of the 130 schools burnt down in the region since 2004. He did not
hesitate to seize the opportunity to be part the project called "Mother
tongue-based bilingual education programme for Patani-Malay speaking
children in Thailand`s deep South", initiated by Mahidol University`s
Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development.
"The
change should have been done long ago," the director said, citing the
unnecessary hardship that Patani-Malay-speaking children have to face
right from the start of their schooling.
While
"Pattani" is the standard name for the Thai province, "Patani" has
historically referred to a larger area straddling southern Thailand and
Malaysia, most of whose inhabitants are ethnic-Malay Muslims.
As
educators have observed, many children simply refuse to go to school,
particularly if speaking their mother tongue at school is punished or
derided. Only the fittest few manage to succeed while the rest struggle,
resulting in the region producing the lowest scores in national
examinations.
The
change in the language of instruction is only part of a project aimed
at promoting more equitable educational opportunities for
Patani-Malay-speaking children by facilitating their entry into
mainstream Thai education and ultimately ending their chronic
underachievement. The project has a comprehensive syllabus for
kindergarten and elementary education that complies with the 30-per-cent
limit on local curriculum allowed by the Education Act.
New
teaching materials for oral and written Patani-Malay have been
carefully developed by a group of native speakers, including local
teachers and educators of various fields.
Teachers
of Patani-Malay have also been given detailed training, from planning
lessons to teaching and managing bilingual classrooms. The popular Total
Physical Response method (TPR), in which students initially remain mute
while the teachers use the language being taught to order them to make
physical actions, is being introduced along with other new techniques in
child-centred education.
A
trilingual, 5,000-word dictionary of Patani-Malay, Thai and Malay using
the Thai-based notation is ready to be put into trial use.
All
these preparations have been carefully carried out by a team of
Patani-Malay-speaking academics and teachers under the close technical
supervision of the Mahidol`s Institute of Language and Culture for Rural
Development. Bilingual and multilingual education experts Dr Dennis and
Susan Malone were brought in from SIL International as advisers.
Indeed
the institute put into the project all the expertise gained from its
many projects to preserve minority languages in the country. Among its
ongoing projects that have had astonishing success in revitalising the
language and improving children`s school performance are the Chong
language project in Chanthaburi, the Nya Kur project in Chaiyaphum and
the So-Thawung project in Sakhon Nakhon.
Without
their own scripts, these languages have been coded using Thai script
designed to represent their sound units or phonemes.
"The
notation of minority oral languages is not new, the missionaries
pioneered it for several decades ago. While they use the Roman script, I
experiment with the Thai script," explained Dr Suwilai Premsirat, the
main force behind the innovative practice.
Her
language experiments and action-based research won her recognition as a
distinguished inventive researcher in philosophy from the National
Research Council of Thailand this year.
However,
while Suwilai`s Thai notation of minority languages has been a boon so
far, the same attempt with the Patani-Malay language has stirred up
controversy among Thai-Muslim teachers and intellectuals in different
sectors.
Opponents
attack the attempt as damaging to the Arabic-based Yawi script, which
could be improved to write Patani-Malay. They question the need to use
the foreign Thai script, which would risk wiping out the teaching and
writing of the Yawi script altogether.
Supporters
of the idea say the Yawi script is currently inadequate to write the
Patani-Malay. While the Yawi-based notation is being improved, they
prefer to go ahead with the fully developed Thai-based notation. They
say that Yawi script will continue to be taught wherever it used to be
taught, such as in religious schools, and the Thai-based notation will
only be used in secular schools. Yawi will continue to be used and their
bilingual programme will consider incorporating the Yawi script at a
later stage anyway.
While
embracing the project at his school, Pansa Wongbulan, director of Ban
Rawaeng School in Pattani, warned that the well-intentioned attempt must
be explained clearly to parents.
"What
if parents think this is to sabotage to their children, who need to
learn Thai in secular schools, but these schools are now switching to
teaching them in the Patani-Malay?" he asked.
Many raised concerns about informing not only the local community but, more importantly, outsiders.
"Without
effective public relations, uninformed governors or district officers
might see the new educational practice as a sign of rebellion for the
`independence` of the Patani state. Then we will have a real risk," said
teacher Napee Sue Mae.
Je Hu Sen Je-U Bong, a member of the Pattani Islamic Committee, said briefing key figures in various ministries was a must.
Meanwhile,
the fact that the project must be carried out by the local people
themselves and has been met with enthusiastic cooperation so far makes
Suwilai more determined to help chart a new course for education in the
country`s deep South.
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