TAMIL LANGUAGE IN SCHOOLS

Mr Shriniwas Rai asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the number of schools offering Tamil as a mother tongue in primary and secondary schools and the number of students who are studying the language; and (b) whether the Government will consider allowing more primary schools to offer Tamil as well as allowing one of the polytechnics to offer it as a part-time course so as to encourage growth of Tamil scholars in Singapore.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Tamil is taught in 147 primary schools and 77 secondary schools. In addition, Tamil is taught at the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre and 5 other secondary schools which serve as Tamil Language centres for pupils from secondary schools which do not offer the subject. Currently, 13,671 primary school pupils and 7,558 secondary school pupils study Tamil.

The Ministry of Education will introduce Tamil language teaching in primary schools where there is a sufficient demand from pupils to offer the subject. As the focus of our polytechnics is on training practice-oriented middle managers and technologists for the Singapore economy, they are currently not engaged in offering Diploma-level programmes in languages, whether on a full-time or part-time basis. There are no plans to do so in the near future.

The Member would be pleased to know the National University of Singapore is starting a South Asian Studies Programme next July, which will include optional Tamil modules. This will allow those with an interest in Tamil to pursue it at NUS, while serving our broader objective of fostering interest in studies on South Asia.