Students Taking Tamil and Non-Tamil Indian Languages for School Examinations

Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Education (a) what was the overall cohort size and of that the total number of students taking Tamil and Non-Tamil Indian languages (NTILs) for each year from 2013 to 2023 for (i) PSLE (ii) N-level (iii) O-level and (iv) A-level examinations respectively; and (b) what is the difference in funding, expressed as a percentage, between Tamil language as an official mother tongue language and each of the other five NTILs per student.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: The Member may refer to Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) press releases, which are published on SEAB's website annually, for total candidature sizes. For Tamil and Non-Tamil Indian language (NTIL) candidature, the question has been addressed by Parliamentary Question 20 as published in the Circular for Written Answers on 6 February 2024. [Please refer to "Statistics on Students Taking Tamil and Five Non-Tamil Indian Language in 2013 and 2023", Official Report, 6 February 2024, Vol 95, Issue 121, Written Answers to Questions section.]

The per-student funding for NTILs is around 70% of that for the three official Mother Tongue Languages.