MALAY STUDENTS OFFERING MANDARIN AS THIRD LANGUAGE (Survey)

Parliament of Singapore · 23 May 1994 · 8th Parliament

Official Report, 23 May 1994, Vol 63, Issue 1 · Open in the reader (summaries, search, filters)

Harun bin A. GhaniKer Sin Tze

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

1

Encik Harun bin A Ghani asked the Minister for Education whether a survey has been conducted on the number of Malay students in secondary schools who show an interest in offering Mandarin as a third language and, if so, how many of them are keen to learn Mandarin and what is their family background.

The Minister of State for Education (Dr Ker Sin Tze) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, a third language is an option offered only to top 10% pupils in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). My Ministry has not conducted a survey to find out how many top 10% Malay pupils may be interested to offer Chinese as a third language. The number is likely to be extremely small.

Encik Harun bin A. Ghani (Hong Kah GRC): Sir, how many Malay students are there in the top 10% bracket?

Dr Ker Sin Tze: According to last year's PSLE, there were only 163 Malay pupils who were in the top 10% bracket.

Source: Singapore Parliament Official Report (Hansard) for 23 May 1994. Republished on SGParliament.