Parliamentary Replies
Mother Tongue Language
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Er Lee Bee Wah, Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education with the recent announcement on the possible revision of the weightage for Chinese language in the PSLE examination (a) how will the reduced weightage encourage and reward students who are good in English and Chinese languages; and (b) whether this revision is a contradiction to the Government’s policy of encouraging Singaporeans to learn and be competent in the Chinese language.
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Assoc Prof Paulin Tay Straughan, Nominated Member of Parliament
Question
To ask the Minister for Education (a) if he will give an update on the proposal to reduce the weightage for mother tongue in the PSLE; (b) what are the main objections to the proposal and whether there is merit to these concerns; (c) what is the feedback from those involved in the Malay and Tamil languages; and (d) whether the Ministry has interviewed students for their perspective on this important issue.
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Low Thia Khiang, Member of Parliament for Hougang
Question
To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the current weightage of mother tongue in relation to other subjects in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE); and (b) how is the total aggregated mark of each student sitting for the PSLE computed.
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Low Thia Khiang, Member of Parliament for Hougang
Question
To ask the Minister for Education what is the rationale for assigning weightage to subjects for the PSLE examination results.
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Baey Yam Keng, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar
Question
To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the spread of PSLE results from the top to the bottom grades for all three mother tongues in the last 10 years; (b) what is the proportion of students in these three groups who have achieved B grades and above in the other three subjects over the last 10 years; and (c) whether the reasons to adjust the weightage are similar for students taking Chinese, Malay and Tamil as their second languages.
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Teo Siong Seng, Nominated Member of Parliament
Question
To ask the Minister for Education (a) what concrete action is the Ministry taking to reiterate the international competitive advantage and cultural importance of learning Chinese language as a mother tongue to young Chinese Singaporeans and their parents, especially those from English-speaking home environments; and (b) whether the Ministry has carefully considered and sought public opinion on the social, cultural and educational impact of any attempt to reduce the examination weightage or importance of mother tongue in our current bilingual education policy.
Response
There have been a number of questions from members on the weighting of MTL at PSLE. The Prime Minister (PM) and I have clarified last week at a press conference that MOE is not reducing the weighting of mother tongue language (MTL) in PSLE. The MTLs remain a vital part and cornerstone of our education system. MOE also agrees with Mr Teo Siong Seng that our bilingual policy provides our students with a competitive advantage and is useful to transmit important cultural values.
To maintain our bilingual policy, MOE has appointed a MTL Review Committee headed by Director-General of Education. This is to respond to a wider spread of language abilities and exposure among students, as the proportion of pupils predominantly using English at home is expected to rise further among all ethnic groups. We are starting the review now, as it will take many years to implement the Committee’s recommendations. The broad directions of the Committee’s work — for more differentiated teaching of MTL and a focus on proficiency — have been provided at the press conference and I need not elaborate today. The Committee will consult appropriate stakeholders in their deliberations.
Teaching students of different abilities at their appropriate level to produce proficient users of MTL will require more resources. We will recruit more MTL teachers, re-train in-service teachers, revise the curriculum to be more directly relevant to the students’ daily use of the language, and align our assessment and examination formats with this revised curriculum.
Mr Baey Yam Keng asked about MTL performance at the PSLE. Performance of our students for all three MTLs has remained relatively stable in the last 10 years, with strong support from parents, the effort put in by our students and teachers, and the improvements in the curriculum and teaching methods. Last year, for MTL, 98 percent of candidates scored ‘A-star’ to ‘C’. 13 per cent of the cohort scored ‘A-star’s, and 69 per cent scored ‘A’s. 11 per cent and 5 per cent scored ‘B’s and ‘C’s respectively. Among the students who scored in the top 30% for English, Maths and Science, around 1 in 10 were in the bottom 30% for MTL. MOE’s goal is to help every child to be proficient in MTL, and to encourage those with the ability, to go as far as possible.
Mr Low asked how the PSLE score is computed. Four subjects are examined at the PSLE. For each subject, the marks obtained are converted into a corresponding t-score, which provides a common scale across subjects and MTLs. The PSLE score of each student is the aggregate of the t-scores of the four subjects.
In responding to our press statements, Mr Low has asked publicly if Government will commit to maintaining the importance of MTL. The PM and I have said so plainly. Our statements are clear and direct, and there is no need for Mr Low to interpret them further. But whether we succeed in helping each new generation use and love their MTL and appreciate their cultural heritage, will not depend on mere political statements or affirmations. All interested parties must now put in more efforts to support our bilingual policy. MOE is putting in more resources for the teaching of MTL in schools, not less. We will work with groups within the community as well as parents to create a more conducive environment for our students to use and learn their MTL. The outpouring of support for MTL is a positive aspect that we can tap on. We should now leave it to DGE’s Committee and the professionals to set the road map to enhance MTL learning for the next 10 to 15 years.