Language is the cornerstone of any culture, and the Sikh community in Griffith are pushing to see Punjabi taught in schools.
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The Sikh temple has been running Punjabi lessons on Saturdays since last year, however many would like to see their language brought into school curriculum.
Griffith mother Vaneet Kaur’s children have been going to the lessons at the Temple for some time, and she says its about more than family, including cross-cultural communication in the workplace, maintaining cultural identities and fitting in to an international community.
“I work in the hospital, and I know how important it is to bridge communication gaps,” Mrs Kaur said.
“When we have Italian patients and we are not able to communicate with them, and when I have my Punjabi patients as well, and I go and speak with them, and it makes them so happy someone is able to understand them and what they are going through.”
Bhavnoor Kaur and Japleen Kaur Students and teacher’s aides for the Sikh Temple classes say the children attending show a thirst for the knowledge.
“It’s fun to learn and teach, because we don’t understand how to say it so it’s kind of funny, and we usually do art activities, make sure everyone is enjoying learning it,” Japleen said.
“They usually want to stay longer, they never want to finish,” Bhavnoor said.
Manjit Singh Lally, general secretary of Gurdwara Singh Sabha society said they were strongly pushing to have Punjabi taught in public schools.
“The mainstream schools have Italian as an option, so we are trying to get there with Punjabi not just in Griffith, but in NSW too,” Mr Lally said.
“I think everyone is entitled to learn their mother-language, no matter if they are Punjabi or not… If you know two or three languages, it is very beneficial for everyone.”
After receiving government funding to get their weekend classes up and running, he hopes to have Punjabi in mainstream schools by next year.
Punjabi is recognised as the major national language by the United Nations and ranks number 10 in the most spoken languages spoken around the world.
“The same way these new generations which are going to be doctors, nurses, lawyers one day, they are going to need it,” Mrs Kaur said.
“Even for our culture it’s important, to keep our heritage alive and people should be attached to their culture and heritage.”
Recently, the New South Wales Department of Education has invited the Punjabi community to develop a Punjabi curriculum for classes from Kindergarten to Year 10.
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Invitation letters were sent out to the community schools, inviting experts to advise the Department on developing the subject.
Due to the rapid growth in the Punjabi community in the state, the Sikh community believe this is the right time to introduce Punjabi into the curriculum.
Currently, Punjabi as a subject is available to HSC students who learn it in weekend schools and almost 100 to 150 students appear in NSW Punjabi exams every year.
The Department of Education have been approached for comment.