HIGHER MALAY (Assessment of performance of Malay language students)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

The following Question stood in the name of Mr Ahmad Mohd Magad -

Mr Ahmad Mohd Magad: To ask the Minister for Education whether his Ministry's assessment of the performance of Malay language students in schools will allow more students to take Higher Malay.

Mr Shriniwas Rai (Nominated Member): Question No. 1, Sir.

The Minister for Education (RAdm Teo Chee Hean): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Ministry has relaxed the criteria for allowing pupils to take Higher Mother Tongue. From year 2000, EM2 pupils who have scored a Band 1 in their mother tongue language, (Malay Language (ML), Chinese Language (CL) or Tamil Language (TL)) and at least a Band 2 in English Language and Mathematics, at the Primary 4 Streaming examination, will be given the opportunity to offer a Higher Mother Tongue Language at Primary 5.

Currently, pupils who are in the top 10% of the PSLE cohort are allowed to offer Higher Mother Tongue (ML, CL and TL) at Secondary One. In addition, those who are in the top 11% to 20% of the cohort and who have scored an A* in the mother tongue language and an A in English Language are also allowed to offer Higher Mother Tongue at Secondary One. This applies to the Malay Language, Chinese Language and Tamil Language. In total, about 350 pupils in Secondary 1 are eligible to offer Higher Malay Language in 1999.

We have now broadened this to include pupils in the top 21% to 30% of the cohort, subject to the same language requirements as for pupils in the top 11% to 20% group. This will allow 150 more Secondary 1 pupils to offer Higher Malay in our schools.

Mr Zulkifli Bin Baharudin (Nominated Member): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister, compared to other subjects, for example, Mathematics, Science and English, are Malay students facing problems in learning the Malay language?

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: The Malay students in our schools have done progressively better over the years. But there is still room for improvement. Our Malay students can get more out of our education system than they are getting today. But their performance in the Malay language is not the factor that hampers their progression through our education system. In fact, it is the other subjects, English, Mathematics and Science, for example, which hamper their progression through our education system.

Mr Zulkifli Bin Baharudin: Can I ask the Minister whether, that being the case, a CL `B' equivalent in this case may not be necessary for Malay students and, secondly, if Mathematics, Science and English are some of the weaker subjects faced by Malay students, would the Minister consider introducing special programmes and syllabus to enable Malay students to cope with these subjects?

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Whether or not ML B' is required is a matter of continuing discussion which we are having. We have made no decision on that yet. Whether or not we want to have special programmes for Mathematics and Science and a special syllabus, perhaps a Mathematics B' or Science `B'? We already have at the secondary school level Mathematics and Science at various levels. For example, we have Additional Mathematics and Mathematics D. We have the pure sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and we have the combined sciences, Physics with Chemistry, Physics with Biology, etc. So students can take a combination of subjects which suits their aptitudes and which they think they can do well in and which would be most appropriate considering what further education they want to go on to.

For Mathematics and Science, it would not be beneficial to have a separate syllabus, particularly if it is tailored for Malay students, because it would not serve the purpose of providing a solid foundation that is necessary for progression, particularly in technical and science courses, in further education. But, say, in English, for example, for the EM1 and EM2 students, although we do not have a different standard, we do have a programme which is beginning to show quite good success at the lower primary level, Primary 1 and Primary 2, and it is called the learning support programme. This programme provides support through learning support coordinators to children who have difficulties in English and it provides them additional teaching and coaching in English so that they increase their reading age in English and that will help them in all their other subjects.

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang (Cheng San): Sir, would the Ministry consider identifying more schools to offer Higher Malay now that the eligibility has been extended to pupils in the top 21%-30% cohort?

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, there are now currently 10 schools which are offering Higher Malay and four of them function as Higher Malay Centres to which students who are studying in schools close by come to as well. Our assessment is that the geographical spread and the number of schools are adequate, but if there is a need we will be prepared to increase the number of centres.

Mr Hawazi Daipi (Sembawang): Sir, does the Ministry have any other plans to help create the Malay cultural elite through schools?

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: When we were discussing the Chinese Language review the Ministry has indicated that it would be prepared to consider a language elective programme in Malay at the junior college level if there is a demand for this. We have to study this. Some of the other measures which we were talking about include the bonus points for entry to courses in the university where Higher Mother Tongue would be useful, for example, in communications studies. These things would apply to all the mother tongue languages, whether it is Chinese, Malay or Tamil. This is still in discussion with the universities.