Perkembangan Sukatan Pelajaran dan Kurikulum Tamil Sekolah Rendah di Malaya Sebelum 1947

Abstract

Since Tamil education in Malaysia was formally established in Malaya around 1816, it has undergone various changes in terms of syllabus and curriculum before the country gained her independence in 1957, when the direction of education changed towards the formation of the a Malaysian-based educational system. The development patterns and forms of syllabus and curriculum that have been the basis of the development of Tamil Malaysian education for almost 140 years before 1947 were not well explored due to lack of empirical research and resources. Almost all existing literature that describe the nature of this era failed in explaining the compositions of the syllabus and curriculum that were used by stating that the Indian-continent based syllabus was adopted in that era. There were no proper studies that offer thorough explanation of the content and direction of the syllabus and curriculum of that time. Using the historiographical method, this study has delved into this need and listed the process and development of Tamil syllabus and curriculum that have been introduced for Tamil schools in Malaysia before independence. Descriptive qualitative method using descriptions and reporting were used to provide an explanation of the circumstances, events, changes, and developments that took place in the sector of Tamil education before 1947. The findings of the study were discussed through two main aspects, namely, aspects of exploring the history of the development of Tamil education and content analysis of the syllabus components and curriculum of Tamil school education. The results clearly envisage the direction and the development of syllabus content and preindependence curriculum. The finding is expected to be an important platform to know and understand the development of Tamil syllabus and curriculum education in the days before Malaysia gained her independence.