ENROLMENT LIMIT FOR MALAY PUPILS (Justification)

Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Education what studies have been made to justify limiting the enrolment of Malay students to 25% each school and whether such a policy will create other problems.

Dr Tay Eng Soon (for the Minister for Education): Sir, I am answering on behalf of my Minister again.

Statistics show that Malay children in primary schools with a high concentration of Malay pupils performed poorly in PSLE as compared with their counterparts in schools with a lower proportion of Malay pupils. Where Malay pupils comprised 30% or more of the school enrolment, over one-third of them failed their PSLE. The failure rate among Malay pupils in schools where they formed not more than 10% of the school population was less than 20%.

With regard to the second part of the question, I have dealt with the matter in my reply to the question from the Member for Eunos.

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Sir, it would appear that this policy is based purely on educational considerations. Has the Minister taken into account the cultural, social and other practical problems arising from this policy?

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Sir, this policy was taken up as a result of a request from the Malay Members of Parliament who are well acquainted with the failure rates as well as the success rates of Malay pupils in different schools.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, it is obvious that the Minister has not made a thorough study of this matter. Is the Minister now willing to carry out a study on whether there would be other problems when this policy is implemented?

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I am not sure what the Member means that the Ministry has not made a thorough study of this matter. Perhaps he would like to bring out some instances of this.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, I was thinking whether or not it would disorientate the Malay students if you put them in smaller groups; whether they will feel more insecure. There are other problems arising. So I do not know whether the Ministry should go in-depth into this before they put a limit on a minority group.

The Minister for the Environment (Dr Ahmad Mattar): I hope the Member for Potong Pasir understands that the school environment has an effect on the language pupils use in school. And in schools with a high concentration of Malay pupils the tendency is for them to speak in Malay. This is a natural thing to do. But if this is allowed to persist in a school, then their English will, in the long run, suffer.

Language, Mr Speaker, Sir, is the key to the acquisition of knowledge. If a pupil is unable to understand a language, which in our case here is English, then he is unable to receive information or knowledge in that language. It is therefore very important, Sir, that this problem is met as soon as possible. What I would like to emphasize here again, Sir, is that over-concentration of people of one race in a particular place works against our racial harmony and social contact which are very essential in our multi-racial society.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, may I be allowed to reply? Just to say a few words.

Mr Speaker: You are not allowed to reply, Mr Chiam.

Mr Chiam See Tong: The Minister for the Environment has been given a chance to speak.

Mr Speaker: You are allowed to ask supplementary questions. If you do not have any, do sit down.

Mr Chiam See Tong: All right. May I ask the Minister this question. This problem is an educational problem. Does the Minister not think that they should deal with it in an educational way, ie, perhaps reduce the number of pupils in a class, or perhaps give the poorer pupils extra tuition? If this is an educational problem, then I think it should be tackled by educational methods and theories, and not to arbitrarily limit the enrolment of one minority group in a school. In other words, they would have lost the choice of their own school. I think you should tackle the problems correctly and not just arbitrarily stop the pupils from going to the school of their own choice.

The other point is ---

Mr Speaker: Mr Chiam, where is your supplementary question?

Mr Chiam See Tong: --- that there is nothing to stop Malay pupils from gathering and speaking in Malay even if it is limited to 25%.

Dr Tay Eng Soon: Mr Speaker, Sir, the points that the Member has made regarding smaller class sizes, remedial classes and so on, have been taken because these are measures which we are already implementing in our schools.

As for a smaller group of Malay pupils in a school, there are schools today with enrolments of 5% or 10% Malay pupils.

The Minister for Education (Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam): Sir, may I be allowed to say a few words?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is no question of limiting the choice of any pupil. If the Member has heard accurately the answer given by the Minister of State to the question from the Member for Eunos, then he would know that what we have done for those Malay children who have not been able to get a place in the school of registration at the first time because of the 25% limit is to offer them a place in a school as close as possible to their school of registration but where the 25% limit has not been reached. But if the parents prefer, as stated by my Minister of State, and provided the school of registration still has vacancies, then the parents can register their child and the child can go to the preferred school of registration. But the choice is up to the parents.

As the Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs has already stated, there are sound educational grounds for limiting or lowering the enrolment of Malay Primary 1 children in schools. Where there are concentrations of Malay children, there is a natural tendency for them to gather together and to talk in Malay.

I think, Mr Speaker, Sir, what the Member is suggesting will be detrimental to the interest of the Malay community, and particularly to the interest of the Malay children themselves. As he says, this is an educational problem. We are trying to deal with it in an educational way. Where there are other cultural problems, I am sure they will be looked into by my Ministry and by Mendaki with the assistance of the Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs.

Much obliged, Mr Speaker, Sir.

Mr Chiam See Tong: May I ask the Minister. He says that he has dealt with this problem from an educational point of view. Can he quote me instances where the failure rate in schools which have more than 30% Malay intake is fairly high? What educational methods have they used to solve this problem other than limiting the intake to 25%?

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I think the answer has already been given by my Minister of State. I do not think we should repeat the answer again.