KUALA LUMPUR – The Telugu community has come a long way under the leadership of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in preserving the community’s language and culture, said the Telugu Association of Malaysia (TAM) in a statement issued here yesterday.
“We had 63 Telugu schools in Malaysia and the last one to be shut down was in the year 1990. We know it’s a real uphill task to reestablish the Telugu Schools, instead we started weekend free Telugu Classes in various locations in the country.
“This was only possible with the financial and logistic support from the government with direct allocation from the Prime Minister’s Department and later via SEDIC. Today, we are very proud to say that more than 3,000 Telugu children are able to read, write and converse in proper Telugu,” said the association.
According to the statement, under the guidance and seeding fund from the Prime Ministers Department, TAM Foundation was established with the main objectives of helping Telugu students in their pursuit for higher education through interest free loans and reward high achievers at school level.
Todate, it said, the foundation have given out interest-free loans to more than 300 students and amounting to more than RM2 million.
“We are now moving in the right direction, thanks to the support of the current government under the leadership of Datuk Seri Najib. Since 2010, we have moved so much closer in achieving our objectives compared to the years before 2010,” said the statement.
The Telugu people originate from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.