SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES DEPARTMENT

Mr R. Sinnakaruppan asked the Minister for Education if he will inform the House on the progress concerning the proposal to set up a South Asian Studies Department at the National University of Singapore.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (Dr Aline K. Wong) (for the Minister for Education): Sir, during the Committee of Supply debate in July last year, Minister Teo said that MOE and NUS would study the proposal to set up a South Asian Studies programme at the NUS.

MOE and NUS have now completed the study and have concluded that it is indeed feasible to start a South Asian Studies Programme at NUS from the Academic Year 1999/2000.

The programme will enrich the university curriculum and give our under-graduates exposure to South Asia. The programme will also complement the academic activities at the East Asian Institute as well as the Southeast Asian Studies Programme at NUS.

The South Asian Studies Programme will be structured to allow students to either take modules as non-major electives or take South Asian Studies at the General Degree level as a Double Subject Major, without the Honours component. It will initially consist of 10 modules, with eight South Asian Studies modules conducted in English, including political, social, economic and cultural aspects of South Asia. There will be two Tamil language modules to meet the needs of those wishing to keep up with the language at the tertiary level. However, as the purpose of the programme is not language training in Tamil or in other Indian languages, the language component in this South Asian Studies Programme will be optional courses.

Mr R. Sinnakaruppan (Kreta Ayer-Tanglin): I would like to find out from the Senior Minister of State whether it would be possible for graduates from this course to go on to teach Tamil in the primary and secondary schools because that is the main problem that the Indian community faces in respect of Tamil.

Dr Aline Wong: The main purpose of this South Asian Studies Programme is not to train teachers to teach Tamil language in primary or secondary schools. Yes, we do have a shortage of these language teachers in our schools right now. We have been supplementing our local supply from overseas. But the main purpose of this programme is to provide an opportunity for people who want to do South Asian Studies at the university level. That is why the Tamil language modules are optional. They are not required.

Mr Shriniwas Rai (Nominated Member): May I ask the Senior Minister of State that in view of the fact that this will be the only centre that will be offering Tamil as a language, would she consider that the two modules are rather short because there is a shortage of Tamil teachers in Singapore? One of the problems with the Indian community is whether the Government would take steps to see that the Tamil language is taught at the higher institutes of learning. This being the first time, would the Senior Minister of State consider increasing the load to, say, five modules?

Dr Aline Wong: If this is the case, then it will have to be at the expense of the academic subjects in politics, economics, political science and so on. At this stage, we are thinking of a programme which meets the academic content of a university programme.

Mr Sinnakaruppan: I would like to find out from the Senior Minister of State whether a graduate who takes some of the optional modules in Tamil, ie, more than two modules in Tamil, will be able to go on to the NIE's post-graduate diploma and then go on to teach in the schools?

Dr Aline Wong: We could consider the Member's suggestion and look into it at a later stage.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim (Jalan Besar): In view of the interest in South Asian Studies and the diversity of cultures and languages, is there any plan to expand the language module to include other languages like Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali?

Dr Aline Wong: It is a question of whether we have the teaching resources as well as the demand which is present in our society.