CHINESE LANGUAGE 2 AT 'O' LEVEL (Standard of Pass grade)

Dr Koh Lip Lin asked the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education (a) what is the standard of a passing grade in Chinese Language 2 (CL2) at 'O' level and whether a student who has passed CL2 at 'O' level be able to read Chinese newspapers and general books and write reasonable Chinese; (b) what steps his Ministry has taken, with the introduction of a new national stream education system, to ensure that the quality of teaching and the standard of CL2 will not decline in future; (c) whether there is a minimum number of hours assigned to the teaching of CL2 in schools; and (d) whether his Ministry will consider replacing the names CL2, Malay Language 2 (ML2) and Tamil Language 2 (TL2) with CL, ML and TL, respectively.

Dr Tay Eng Soon (for the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, first of all, I want to thank the Member for Nee Soon for raising specific questions concerning the teaching of CL2. This gives me the opportunity to clear some doubts which have arisen in the media concerning the standard of CL2. But before I answer his questions, I want to take this opportunity to clear up two misconceptions which have arisen since the recent announcement that by 1987, all our schools will be of the national type teaching ELl and mother tongue as second language.

The first misconception is the belief by some that the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is now no longer important. This is not so. CL2 is important. The bilingual policy remains unchanged. CL2 will continue to be given due weightage at PSLE and 'O' level for progress into secondary and Pre-U levels. At the NUS, students who are admitted without the pre-requisite of D7 in CL2 will have to pass a Chinese proficiency examination before they are allowed to graduate.

The second misconception is that the termination of the Chinese medium stream by 1987 means that the future of Chinese language in Singapore is in doubt. This again is not so. The bilingual policy will ensure that Chinese is taught and learnt to the same level as it is today. Over the past decade, the majority of our school leavers have been through the bilingual system. Today, mote people than ever before are bilingual, especially the younger generation. Let me quote some statistics from the 1980 census. For those aged 40 and above, only 7% are literate and bilingual in English and Chinese. For those between 30 and 39 years of age, 19% are bilingual. For those between 15 and 29 years of age, 35% are bilingual. Between the 1970 and 1980 census, the total percentage of Singapore Chinese who are bilingual rose from 11.8% to 29.6%, an increase of 2,3-fold. Thus, the number who are bilingual is growing steadily each year.

I would now like to turn to the specific questions that the Member for Nee Soon has asked. A student who has completed CL2 at Sec 4 would have mastered about 3,000 characters. This should readily enable him to read the daily newspapers and general books, to discuss general topics in Chinese, and to write letters and short essays.

As I mentioned in my reply to the Member for Boon Teck, my Ministry has taken a number of measures to ensure that the teaching of CL2 is improved. The standard of CL2 is carefully specified in the CL2 syllabus and in the new textbooks produced by CDIS. The syllabus prescribes a minimum of 3,000 characters and 200 idiomatic expressions that must be learnt by a student by the time he reaches Sec 4. The 'O' level CL2 examination is set and moderated by an independent panel from the Chinese Studies Department of NUS to ensure that the standard is maintained.

The number of periods given to CL2 in primary and secondary levels is also prescribed. In primary schools, it is 8 to 10 periods per week depending on the level, while in secondary schools, it is 6 periods per week. Schools are, however, given some latitude to adjust the number of periods up or down by one period per week depending on the particular need of individual classes in the school. Thus, for example, many schools run extra remedial classes for their weak pupils. Extra Chinese language exposure time is also given to the pupils through subjects such as moral education and art and craft.

The Member for Nee Soon has asked whether the suffix "2" could be dropped from CL2, ML2 and TL2. For the next few years, there will still be many students in our schools doing L1 and L2. Dropping the suffix at this stage may create confusion among the schools. At a later date, if necessary, it would be possible to do so.