28th. November 2004 : Around the globe I have witnessed the half-hearted attempts of Sikh communities in teaching their off-springs Panjabi. I am sure there are proper Punjabi schools around, but some attempts I have seen are laughable.

Normally, the gurdwara or gurdwara committee is lumbered with the job of teaching children Panjabi and their usual option is to handball the job to their 'Granthis' or some sewadhars. So starts 'the' Panjabi school. Normally it fizzles out in a few weeks, months or one or two years. The granthi is not a Punjabi school teacher and he does not have a curriculum to work from. Some industrious sewadhars go to Panjab and get the 'Bal Bodh' and Pehli Pothi etc. to make an attempt in teaching Panjabi. The efforts remains while that sewadhar remains and he/she teaches from outdated books from Panjab.

They teach a western born and brought up Sikh child that he/she gets up in the morning and 'nalkay nu gedea' and 'daaten kiti'. Now which child has to 'pump' for water to come out of the ground and through the tap and which child knows or has ever done a 'daaten' in the west! Which child of the west knows what a 'khuh' is?

In Adelaide a group of well meaning sewadhars (including me) have started a Punjabi school about ten years ago. But it will appear that in that time, we have not progressed from 'Oodha, aidha etc'. Why? Because there is no proper continuous 'curriculum' to seriously teach our children Punjabi. I have seen this half-hearted attempts throughout the world - including Melbourne, Brisbane, to name just two cities.

I have worked with the SINGAPORE SIKH EDUCATION FOUNDATION for the past ten years and I have seen professional 'educators' develop a ten year curriculum with comparative text books, students' guides, teachers' guides, parents' guides, multimedia aids and now, even nursery rhymes!! Bhajan Singh, the man behind the Foundation is one of Singapore's (mainstream) so called 'crack' former headmasters. He used to be sent to 'problem' schools to straighten them out. Now working for the Research Wing (RELC) of the Singapore Education Department, he has been dedicated since 1989 to making SSEF one of the most formidable Panjabi teaching institutions outside Punjab. Using up-to-date western methodology he is now being called on to do the same for other 'Indian' languages in Singapore namely Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, Gujerati etc.

The work of the SSEF is being duplicated in Thailand (Bangkok), now Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh) and soon Philipines (Manila) and Indonesia (Jakarta and Medan).

As mentioned earlier, I have helped record Nursery Rhyme type kavetas for SSEF. Last week I had the good fortune of meeting a Panjabi children's singer/poet - Kamaljit Neelon who does work for the SSEF. I was amazed at his ability of writing instant Panjabi Nursery Rhymes and recording them. Easy learning methods to teach children Punjabi by getting them to sing about how wonderful mothers are; about teachers who teach you and are kind; about animals, about vegetables, about fruits, about relatives - who a Chacha is, differences between a Thaya and a Chacha and that the feminine gender for Phuphad is not Phuphadi! ALL in song and even dance or movement choreography!!

So, are YOU serious about teaching future generations Panjabi? There is already available, a curriculum to suit your children developed by the SSEF.

If you seriously want to teach Sikh children Panjabi or even your own child, then the proper, modern 'aids' are available from SSEF. Try Bhajan Singh on bhajan@pacific.net.sg or ring him up on (Singapore) 900 22 800.

Dya Singh CD’s available for sale now at www.ethnicisland.com