Narayanasamy Kuppusamy

Narayasamy K. is a former Teacher Training College and University Malaya lecturer who had contributed immensely for the Tamil education professionally and as a social worker. Born in 1947, in Kerling, Selangor to a plantation worker, he attended Tamil school and completed his secondary education in Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Kuala Selangor. While in school he initiated the formation of Tamil Language Society (TLS) in 1965 and published its first Tamil language magazine. Narayanasamy furthered his tertiary studies in BA (History); Master’s in Education, both in University Malaya.

During his tenure as a lecturer he served as head of Tamil Language Unit. He initiated and published the first dictionary of technical terms in Pedagogy, Mathematics, Science and other subjects. He was also instrumental in publishing the `Literary and Grammar Guide Books’ for Tamil language teaching at primary and secondary level. When the Smart School Programme was initiated for the Teacher Training Division (TTD) of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Narayanasamy was one of the thirty pioneer central trainers of the programme. He was also the key trainer on learning critical and creative thinking of the TTD and 35 headed the team which wrote the module for teaching thinking. He contributed immensely to the Tamil language teachers’ programme as head of many of the panels developing syllabuses, setting exam papers, for pre-service, in-service and other programmes for primary and secondary levels. He was the first Expert Lecturer (Pensyarah Cemerlang) for Tamil language in the Teacher Training Colleges.

A notable training course he attended is the Teaching of Critical and Creative Thinking, in Boston, USA, in 1997. The enriching experience enabled him to contribute positively towards the betterment of Tamil Education. In 2012 he wrote and published a book on Teaching Thinking in Tamil and has presented numerous papers and seminars on Teaching and Learning (Thinking) and Tamil Language at national and international levels. Narayanasamy has written Tamil language text books and exercise books for Primary and Secondary schools.

Of late, he has developed a new approach to teaching Tamil language for the beginners. Today, the Tamil language reading materials are developed based on this approach and being tested in two schools. In 2014, he was appointed by Yayasan My Nadi as Chairman for the preparation of the Blueprint for the Teaching and Learning of Tamil Language in secondary schools which was subsequently submitted to the Prime Minister for implementation.

In Community Development activities he has been actively involved with MAIUG and GOPIO, since 1980 in promotion of POL classes and Conferences. At present he is involved in the Ilham project (since 2008) and leadership programme for 7A students. In 2012 he was honoured as a `great teacher’ by The Tamil Youth Bell Club of Petaling Jaya.