MALAYSIAN CHINESE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND THE ROLE OF CHINESE PRIMARY SCHOOL – CASE STUDY OF SJK(C) KEAT HWA(H), ALOR SETAR
Keywords:
Malaysia, Chinese, Education, Culture, VernacularAbstract
Chinese education is an integral part of Malaysian Chinese cultural system, and Chinese primary school has been regarded by the Chinese educationists as the “Last Bastion of Chinese education and culture”. This shows that Chinese primary school has its advantages compared to other Chinese education institutions. The writing of this article not only obtained opinions from Chinese parents through questionnaires, and comparative study between Chinese independent secondary school and Chinese primary school, also investigate the efforts of the Chinese primary school in inheriting and protecting Chinese culture through the academic curriculum, annual activities and other special events. SJK(C) Keat Hwa(H), Alor Setar has been selected as thesubject for this research because of its fame and historical background in Chinese education. This study has shown that the role played by Chinese primary school in Malaysian Chinese cultural heritage was built on the mentality of the Chinese parents, who wanted their children to at least learn the Chinese language at the primary school level. Chinese primary school has successfully provided exposure, contact and introduced Malaysian Chinese culture to the ethnic Chinese, especially as a platform for cultural art performance. Due to the current situation of Malaysia, Chinese primary schools could not allow majority of the students to master these cultural subjects. Therefore, cultural values are even harder to be transmitted to the next generations within 6 years of primary school education.
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