Singapore Tamil Youth Conference 2016 Manifesto NUSTLS Singapore Tamil Youth Conference 2016 Manif | Page 75

Issue 12: Preservation of Tamil Cultural Elements
3. Are schools doing enough to emphasise the importance of Tamil language and culture
among students? Give some examples from your experience/thing that you have
heard from your friends that show such efforts.
• Yes, the schools are supporting Tamil efforts. Examples include the annual cultural Tamil
shows/plays in various tertiary institutions (junior colleges and polytechnics).
• Some youths disagreed and mentioned that the school’s support for Tamil language or
Indian societies are minimal as the population of Tamil youth in schools is very small as
compared to other languages/races. Minimal funding is provided by some schools for
these students to express their language interests.
• Schools should start introducing online Tamil books. The Tamil Digital Heritage Project is
in place but not all schools promote it. When Tamil books can be easily accessed, the
youths will find it more convenient to read these books.
4. Which do you think is a better way of promoting Tamil language and culture among
youths? Is it through competitions, exams, broad-based learning in Tamil classes,
conferences or some other means?
• Many youths felt that it was important to infuse technology into the learning of the Tamil
language. They also preferred more visuals instead of Tamil words on these platforms –
reduce the technical terms in Tamil and it would be more reader-friendly for the youths.
• Create local Tamil movies and music from renowned Tamil literary works to promote our
rich literary works. Create games where the youths can play as a character in the movies.
Similar approaches have been adopted for famous drama series on Vasantham; we can
look into extending these to our Tamil literary works.
• Even though media is a good tool to propagate the Tamil language, most youths agreed
that the passion for Tamil language should be existent first in order for the media’s efforts
to be fully effective.
• Theatre productions are of a great value in Singapore due to our multiculturalism. Some
youths felt that theatre companies should not be solely profit-driven, but focus on the
objectives/goals of their productions. They could afford to stage productions that have
cleverly infused the Tamil culture and language. Examples include the Kalinga Trilogy.
Issue 12: Preservation of Tamil Cultural Elements
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