More Malays Enrol In Chinese Schools

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam - After penning his Chinese name on a piece of paper with ease, Md Luqman Wadihan Ramlan readily sings a song that is partly written in an ancient form of the language.

Nine-year-old Md Luqman is a Malay who is on his way to mastering Chinese.

The Year Three primary school pupil has been studying at the Chung Hwa Middle School in Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) for four years.

His younger brother and sister are also pupils at the Chinese school.

Md Luqman’s parents, a government school teacher and a public servant, sent their three children to the private school even though they have to pay at least $150 a month in school fees for each child.

Md Luqman and his siblings are among the growing number of Malays in Brunei who attend Chinese schools, which were virtually exclusive to Chinese immigrants just two decades ago.

More than one-fifth of more than 6,000 students in the country’s eight Chinese schools are not of Chinese descent, according to school figures.

The rise of China and favourable Brunei-China ties have helped boost the popularity of Chinese schools among Malays, educators said.

“Learning Chinese has become a global trend as China grows stronger,” said Kho Guik Lan, principal of Chung Hwa Middle School BSB.

Other local educators commonly cite the example of Jim Rogers to highlight the trend.

The United States (US) investment guru, who has said that China is on its way to becoming the superpower of the 21st century, settled in Singapore and hired Chinese teachers for his youngest daughter.

The six-year-old girl is now said to speak fluent Chinese.

Kho said many local parents also believe Chinese could be a useful asset for their children.

Md Luqman said he knew exactly why his parents chose the school.

“They want me to learn Chinese and tell me it will be useful,” he said.

In Chung Hwa Middle School BSB, Brunei’s largest Chinese school, 21.5 per cent of its 3,268 students are Malays and 6.7 per cent are from other non-Chinese groups.

Kho who became the school’s principal in 1997 was herself a student at the school from 1969 to 1974.

Traditional teaching methods - which focus on building strong fundamentals for students - have also been helping to win the hearts of a growing number of non-Chinese Bruneians, said the principal.

Lectures, readings and repetitive drills are commonly used to train pupils’ memory, math and science skills, she said.

But Western teaching methods such as visual aids, group discussions and project management have also been frequently used in recent years to nurture students’ creativity, the principal added.

Chinese culture - which emphasises values of modesty, respect and filial piety - adds to the attraction of these schools.

Many parents have told Kho that their children’s discipline and manners have improved after such an emphasis.

Brunei’s eight Chinese schools were established since the 1920s amid the immigration rush that lasted several decades, when Chinese people fled war-torn China for better lives in Southeast Asia.

Accounting for 11.5 per cent of Brunei's population of 390,000, ethnic Chinese are now the largest minority community.

Chinese schools, all private, have more than 6,000 students in total, accounting for nearly nine per cent of students from preliminary to secondary schooling in Brunei.

The country had 234 kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in 2008, 150 of which were public, figures from the Ministry of Education showed.

Chinese schools are now “localised for all ethnic groups”, said Han Min Yuen, the permanent honorary chairman of Chung Ching Middle School.

A calligrapher and businessman, Han served as the chairman of Brunei’s second-largest Chinese school in the 1980s.

The localisation of Chinese schools accelerated in the 1990s, when the government required these schools to follow a bilingual teaching system.

Malay and English, instead of Chinese, became the teaching languages. Now, only eight periods of Chinese language, about half an hour for each, are given a week.

The localisation is also in line with the social trend as the third and fourth generations of Chinese immigrants integrated themselves with locals, Kho said.

“As people mix with local communities, so should our school,” she said.

Kho said Chung Hwa Middle School is a miniature of Brunei’s society, with all people regardless of racial and cultural background living in peace.

Urva Emaan, a pupil in Kho’s school, said: “I don’t have any problem getting along with my classmates. We are all friends.”

Speaking fluent Chinese, the eight-year-old American Pakistani said her best friend in the school is Senela Beh, a Malaysian Chinese.

However, Francis F N Law, permanent honorary chairman of Belait’s Chung Hwa School, the third-largest Chinese school in Brunei, expressed worry that students’ Chinese proficiency has actually declined.

“Many graduates of Chinese schools fail to properly write letters or read newspapers in Chinese,” he said. “While learning Chinese is getting popular in the West and other parts of Southeast Asia, we are somewhat falling back.”

Echo also acknowledged such a decline, saying that students’ writing and reading abilities have also turned weaker.

Chung Ching Middle School’s Han said poorer Chinese proficiency was unavoidable since students have to master more languages and skills to face the challenges of globalisation.

But educators believed Chinese schools will prosper as long as they “keep their spirit alive”. “Chinese schools teach not only the language but also traditional virtues such as hard work and thrift,” Han said.

An appetite for risk is another virtue Han deemed as crucial for youngsters in oil-rich Brunei.

Unlike government-funded public schools, Chinese schools have to raise every cent on their own. Students therefore need to participate in a variety of fundraising activities, Han said.

These “no pain, no gain” campaigns instil a fighting spirit that will benefit them throughout their life, especially when the younger generation in welfare-oriented Brunei turns less aggressive, he said. Zhang Jin

Source: http://www.brudirect.com
Photo: http://rezco.wordpress.com

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