SPECIAL ASSISTANCE PLAN (SAP) SCHOOLS

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Debate resumed.

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I would first of all like to thank all the Members who have spoken this afternoon for their very valuable comments on the Statement which I have made concerning the SAP schools. I am also happy that from the general tenor of the speeches, Members have accepted and agreed with the point that while of course we should continue to monitor the situation very closely, I believe that all Members agree that there is no pressing need to make major changes to the mode of operation of the SAP schools at the present time.

Sir, I will come now to the various points made by Members in the order in which they have been made. But before I do that, I would like to again stress one fundamental point, and that is, our Government's commitment to multi-racial harmony and tolerance as the bedrock of our survival and prosperity in Singapore. As I said, this is fundamental. This cannot be argued and it is important we should ensure that everyone in Singapore, particularly our children, develop an understanding and appreciation of the sensitivities, cultures, customs, religions of the various races in Singapore, learn to accommodate one another, where necessary, and generally learn to live and work with each other. This is to ensure that we continue to have the type of peaceful and prosperous Singapore which we now have. All our comments, whether on SAP schools or on other aspects of our education policy, or indeed of other aspects of Government policy, must always be made with this fundamental point in mind.

Now, Sir, I come to the specific points made by the Members. First of all, Mr Chandra Das, on the point that streaming in our schools should be by merit and not by the choice of a second language. I would say that I could not agree with him more that where it is necessary to stream children, it should be done by merit. And as I have said in my Statement, we take an even-handed attitude towards children of all races in our education system and we will ensure that no child is discriminated against simply because of his race. So I will make sure that the Ministry takes his point very much into consideration.

On Dr Tan Cheng Bock's suggestion on the twinning of schools and how this can be done, I have said that we will look into this matter and I can assure him, Sir, that we always welcome his suggestion and his interest in the Ministry. I would be very glad to hear his views and when we come to the practical details, I am sure that he will be able to assist us.

Sir, Mr Yatiman Yusof has brought up some suggestions, for example, in order to increase inter-racial mixing, we might possibly have a school with three branches - one for Chinese children learning EL and CL, one for Malays and one for Indians, ie, Malays learning EL and ML and Indians learning EL and TL. I believe, Sir, we tried this once. At one time, we had integrated schools with three branches, but it did not work out well. I think that our experience with this type of school shows that it is not a promising approach. But since the Member has raised this point, we will have a look at it again. It may or may not work, but I assure him that his suggestion will not be thrown into the waste paper basket. We will look at it .

Regarding subjects to be taught in the SAP schools which stress multi-racial harmony, as I said in my Statement, Sir, the principals have said that they do have these subjects. They have talks, they have discussions, they also have non-Chinese teachers teaching in the SAP schools, and I am sure they will give this subject very great importance and they will ensure that their students recognise the importance of multi-racial harmony and tolerance in Singapore.

Mr Shanmugam suggested that possibly we might consider offering ML1 and TL1 in the SAP schools as a means of encouraging inter-racial mixing of children. Sir, I do not believe that this is a good suggestion because the SAP schools were set up, as I have explained in my Statement, for the purpose of preserving the ethos and traditions of the Chinese schools. And for that to happen, it is necessary that English and Chinese be the dominant languages in that school and the school operates in that way. Once you allow ML1 and TL1 to be taught in the SAP schools, I believe, Sir, that the character of the SAP schools will change and they will not meet the objectives for which these schools were established.

However, I would like to mention here that in fact three of our independent schools - Raffles Institution, Anglo-Chinese School and St. Joseph's Institution - have on their own initiative started to offer not only CL1 but also ML1 and TL1 to those children in their schools whom they think are capable and who would like to study these three languages at first language level. The Ministry is watching their progress very carefully. If they are successful, then perhaps we could consider extending this to other schools. But I think it is something which we should keep in mind.

On Mr Shanmugam's suggestion that we should ensure that as many schools as possible will offer Malay and Tamil as second language so as to widen access to schools to children of all races and that this should be done even if there are not many students in a particular school who would like to study Tamil, for example, I have said in my Statement that the Ministry is working out steps to ensure that Malay and Tamil as a second language is taught at many more schools.

One of the measures which we are thinking about is to work out a system where we have one Tamil teacher, for example, going round to a few schools to teach TL2. It will involve a little bit of time-tabling problems. But I am sure that this can be worked out with the respective principals and this will make it possible for more schools to offer ML and TL as a second language, thereby allowing more access to these schools for Malay and Tamil children.

On Dr Ow Chin Hock's point about inter-racial mixing, as I have said in my Statement, I do not think that we can really deny the fact that in a multi-racial school with Chinese, Malay and Indian students, there must be more opportunities for mixing than in a school where there are only Chinese students. That point to me is quite obvious. I also agree that it is not only in the schools that children mix but also in their housing estates and in their homes in which they live. And I am sure that all of us would welcome more opportunities for our children and our people of all races to mix with one another.

I just want to make one point in passing, Sir, and that is we have to recognise that in Singapore, with the Chinese forming some 75% of the population, Malays and Indians and others forming 25%, it is theoretically possible, for example, for a Chinese to live, study and work in Singapore and only mix with Chinese. It is not possible for a Malay or an Indian to do the same because of the fact that they only form one-quarter of the population. So it is important for the Chinese population to ensure that we create opportunities for our children to interact and mix with children of other races. This is good for us and for Singapore, and I do not think that any Member would quarrel with this point.

But as I have said in my Statement just now, although in the SAP schools there are almost exclusively Chinese children, there are opportunities for these children to mix with students of other schools and of other ethnic races in inter-school activities. There are opportunities within the school for the children to learn about multi-racial harmony and tolerance. And from the evidence which we have, from the views of the principals of the SAP schools and the junior colleges, the SAP students do mix well and comfortably with students of other schools and, therefore, there is no need to change the present mode of operation.

Dr John Chen has said that we strengthen the study of Chinese at primary level. I think this has already been done. We have established 10 seed schools at the primary level. We are watching their progress.

I believe, Sir, I have covered all the points.

Mr Speaker: Do you want to ask for leave to withdraw your motion?

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg leave to withdraw the motion.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.