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Punjabi as a Second Language in Singapore
Actors and Their Roles

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Although Punjabi is now taught as part of the government's bilingual policy, which comes under the Ministry of Education, however, the role of the government has been very minimal. Unlike Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, the Punjabi Language and other Indian minority languages are planned and funded completely on a community level. The few provisions made by the government and MOE include the approval for teaching the language as a second language, physical locations whereby these classes can be held and MOE personnel to negotiate with the bodies in charge of Punjabi Language Planning and Policy about the curriculum, the grading system and the training of teachers, so as to ensure that a certain acceptable standard is maintained in the teaching of the language as a second language.

The other body solely in charge of most of the work involved is the Sikh Education Foundation Board. It was formed in . Before this board was formed, all matters pertaining to the Sikhs and Punjabis were handled by the Sikh Advisory Board, which was a board that advised the government on matters pertaining to the Sikhs. It was made up of representative from other Sikh institutions and organizations. Hence, naturally when the time came to place the responsibility of planning and management and funding, this board bore the responsibility. However the problem was that this board was a highly political body, which made it unsuitable for undertaking any long-term type of language planning. However because the community saw the teaching of Punjabi as a second language to the young so essential, the body actually agreed to elect a long term chair and to actually change many of its functions and the way that it worked so as to suit its new role. This was a sign of how important the project was for the community. However, after a few years, the board decided to form a subsidiary board, the Sikh Education Foundation, to undertake language planning and management matters, as the Sikh Advisory Board had become overburdened with roles and functions. The chair of both boards for a long time was Mr. Bhajan Singh, so as to allow some type of continuity and cooperation between boards.

The Sikh Education Foundation Board played almost every role in language planning and management:

(1) The running of classes from kindergarten 1 to PSLE level TO O levels to A levels in five different centers located at strategic locations across the island.

(2) The hiring of qualified teachers as well as training them (with a minimal amount of help from MOE)

(3) The setting of exam papers including the PSLE papers, O Level paper, A level paper

(4) The writing of the curriculum, done by the teachers and other experts on a voluntary basis

(5) The preparation of textbooks and workbooks for different levels by teachers on a volunteer basis as well as their printing

(6) The production of educational CD ROMs for young children to learn the alphabet as well as basic words

(7) The production of other types of study aids such as cassette tapes

(8) A reader series starting from kindergarten level is currently being produced which introduces new words to children depending on the levels and gets progressively difficult from level to level.

(9) Composing nursery rhymes for children at the kindergarten level in accordance to popular tones such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

(10) Conducting Sikh Heritage tours to different sites that are important in the Sikh culture, religion, history and Punjabi language.

Prior to this huge scale type of planning undertaken by the Sikh Education Foundation Board, the Sikh Advisory Board in association with the Sikh Resource Centre at Katong Gurdwara (Katong Temple) had helped in the publication of books on Sikh Studies for the G.C.E. Cambridge Course in the 1980s.

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A Gurdwara in Wilkiney Road.

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Besides the efforts that are made above, the Sikh Education Foundation Board is constantly holding seminars in order to maintain teaching standards as well as to ensure that the teachers have up to date training. An example of such a seminar was one that occurred on a large scale over three days in 1992, opened by BG Lee Hsian Long, where teachers were given greater exposure to Sikh Heritage and the Punjabi Language and Literature.

Other bodies that play a role, although in a smaller way, are the other Sikh bodies in Singapore including the gurdwaras. A number of these gurdwaras have libraries, which stock not only religious literature but also Punjabi publications from India as well as Punjabi literature on Sikh History. Hence these libraries are a valuable resource to both teachers and students as well as to other Sikhs and the general population. The gurdwaras that have libraries include the Katong Gurdwara and Central Sikh Temple but the Silat Road Gurdwara probably has the most comprehensive resources. It has a separate five-story building called the Sikh Centre which acts as a community centre. It has the physical facilities to organize activities related to religion, culture and language, amongst which are a library and classes in which adult Punjabi classes are held. The temple was marked recently one of Singapores six historical sites.

Besides having libraries and holding Punjabi classes, most temples such as Silat Road Temple as well as Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha have their own youth wing groups to facilitate communication and contact between young Punjabis so that they will be more enriched with understanding of their culture, faith and language. Activities are held by these groups on a regular basis including camps that are called Samelans. During such camps, many activities associated with religion, culture and language are held and these camps help to promote solidarity and hence language loyalty.

Not only do other Sikh institutes and bodies play a part in supporting the language planning and management of the Punjabi language, the people themselves play a very large role. Firstly, many of them donate generously in order to support the administration and running of the Punjabi classes as well as the production of materials and the hiring and training of teachers, which is almost totally funded without government aid. When the community was first faced with the task of planning the language (after the government announced the changes in the bilingual policy to incorporate Indian Minority Languages), they had to come up with a start up of about $15 000. The people on the Sikh Advisory Board who were attending the first board meeting held to discuss the future of the Punjabi Language as a Second Language raised the money in a matter of minutes. The subsequent funds came from the rest of the Sikh society as is still funded by them. Secondly, many Punjabis give their time carrying other tasks. For instance, when the Punjabi classes were first held after the March 1989 announcement, many teachers taught for free as volunteers to tide over an initial difficult period. Although they are now paid for teaching, they volunteer their time outside school hours for curriculum development and to write textbooks and workbooks as well as to come up with other educational aids.

Lastly, a unique feature in the planning and management of the Indian minority languages is the fact that the various groups in charge of the minority languages have now begun to work together in order to support each other in various ways. For example, some exam papers that are set, such as PSLE papers, have the same questions in all the different papers. For instance, if the Composition Question in the Punjabi requires a student to write about a memorable trip, so will all of the other papers. The reason why the Indian minority groups are able to work in this way is because all these languages belong to the same family group (Indo Aryan Langauges) and have many similar features. Also, this ensures in some type of standard being achieved across the board and therefore increases the credibility of the exam papers. This interaction and mutual cooperation between groups in charge of different languages is unique as rarely do language bodies support each other and work together in the planning and management of their various languages

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