Penang Heritage Trust, in collaboration with Think City Sdn Bhd, would like to invite you to the next Seberang Perai Story Lecture entitled ‘The Memories of Studying in Province Wellesley Tamil Schools in the 1960s’
Date: 11 June 2016 (Saturday)
Time: 9.30am to 12.30pm
Venue: 1st Floor, Sri Ananda Bahwan Restaurant, 2985 Jalan Bagan Luar, Butterworth
Speaker: Dr Arjunan Narayanan
Fee: Free admission, but limited seats only
Following the British colonial government’s 1912 Labour Ordinance, plantation owners established Tamil schools in their respective estates. the government also established Tamil schools in the urban areas.
This talk will cover the situation in the Malakoff Estate, Alma Estate and Ramanathan Tamil schools. Malakoff Estate Tamil School was in a British rubber estate while the Alma Estate Tamil School was in a Chinese owned sub-divided estate. As both schools were located on private lands, they were partly funded by the Malayan government. The Ramanathan Tamil School was an urban and fully government funded school.
The talk will look at these three schools from the perspectives of their location, the plantation society, facilities at the school, the class room teaching, school extra-mural activities adn the students’ life after school hours in the plantation environment. It will cover a six-year period, 1959 – 1964.
Dr Arjunan commenced his schooling at Malakoff Estate, Alma Estate and Ramanathan Tamil schools in Province Wellesley. His secondary school studies were in Bukit Mertajam High School and Han Chiang High School, Penang.
His qualifications: PhD (UK), Master of Defence Studies (Australia), Bachelor of Social Sciences, Diploma in Public Administration and Diploma in Public Management (Malaysia)
He has published in areas related to International Relations. His Tamil book, Samuthaya Malargai (Flowers of Society), is a collection of his articles published in the Malaysian Tamil Dailies. He was in public service for 32 years. Currently he is with HELP University.