The recent spate of letters on Tamil schools are recycling the same old and rather tiring argument that closing down Tamil schools will do wonders for the community.

As usual, facts have become the casualty. Some proponents claim that Tamil schools exist due to the continued manipulation by MIC politicians. The fact is, Tamil schools, in their current tinkered form, continue to exist because the majority of Tamil parents want to and are comfortable sending their children there.

National primary schools are not exactly friendly to Indian children from working class backgrounds. They often endure racial abuses in national schools. Remember the malaysiakini story on how poor Tamil children from squatter areas were being treated in a national primary school?

It is not an isolated incident. Of course, the government would deny the problem although the Suhakam annual report for 2003 found that 63.6 percent of students feel discriminated in schools and this was mainly racial discrimination.

Let me re-emphasise. As one Elanjelian had pointed out, for poor Indian children, it's either Tamil education or no education at all.

Sivam Sengodan gripes about the lack of language proficiency among Tamil school children. That argument may have held water in the past. It is a comedy to repeat the claim now especially after the MIC abetted in tinkering with the Tamil school system.

There are now only five exam subjects in primary schools: Tamil, Bahasa Melayu, English, Maths and Science. One cannot possibly teach Bahasa Melayu and Engish in Tamil. Maths and Science are taught in English. So why repeat the same old bunkum about language deficiency?

Ushiv claims Tamil is not even used as a medium in educational institutions in India. This is silly. India has over one billion people. Only about 65 million of them are Tamils, living in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Certainly, one would not expect the rest of India to teach their children in Tamil. They are taught in their mother tongues which are Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam etc.

Narayanasamy claims Chinese and Tamil schools keep students divided and are against the sprit of national unity. One fails to understand how this could happen when mother tongue education is imparted only during the first six years of schooling.

These children later join the national secondary schools. However, Narayanasamy chose to be silent on the Malay-only residential schools and institutes of higher learning such as the Mara University of Technology. In reality, narrow chauvinistic views are more likely to be formed in these sort of institutions.

Instead of finding soft targets to blame for the Indian community's socio-economic ills, let's be honest in understanding why Tamil Malaysians are struggling to save what is left of the Tamil school system as their cultural heritage.

No doubt, the Tamil schools were started by the British to keep the Tamil workers in the plantations during the colonial period. But times have changed. The Indians have been chased out of the plantations.

Today, about 80 per cent of the Indians are in urban areas. Yet, many Indians still want to send their children to Tamil schools. Why? Firstly, they realise the importance of imparting mother tongue education during the early years of schooling.

Secondly, many of these parents fear the racial abuse their young children would endure in national primary schools. In some instances, Tamil students are all grouped together in the last class and left there to rot. They hardly receive any education.

Thirdly, the government has embarked on an intensive Islamisation drive for over two decades. As a reaction, the Indians see Tamil schools as the last bastion to protect their linguistic, cultural and religious identity. Let's not forget that lots of Tamil cultural and religious activities also take place in these schools.

Even if Tamil schools are closed down, what certainty is there that the situation of the Indians would be better? The opposite effect may take place. Dr K Anbalakan, a lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysian (USM), revealed in his PhD study that the situation got worse for the students after three Tamil schools were converted to national schools in Kelantan.

Dr R Santhiram, a former USM lecturer, showed in his PhD study that there was no difference in the performance of Indian students from low-income families in secondary schools irrespective of whether they were from Tamil or national primary schools.

To all those clamouring for the closure of Tamil schools, do provide some concrete evidence to back your claims and show how this move would help the Indians. The anti-Tamil school arguments put forward are not new. It has been going on for many years.

It is about time you get off the case of the parents of 100,000 children who go to Tamil schools. I am certain they know what is best for their children.

P.S. I am an English educated non-Tamil Indian Malaysian who once strongly clamoured for the closure of Tamil schools. I have since abandoned the stand after spending the weekends in poor Indian neighbourhoods and listening to the views of the people for whom the institution matters most.