THIRD LANGUAGE

Mr Shriniwas Rai asked the Minister for Education whether his Ministry will allow students, whose mother tongue is not taught in the schools, to pursue a third language which is offered in the school curriculum.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: The Ministry of Education ensures that there is a good distribution of schools in any given zone so that students will be able to enrol in a school within reasonable distance from their home that offers their mother tongue.

For those students who enrol in schools in which their mother tongue is not taught, arrangements are made to have their mother tongue lessons at a school or centre which is within reasonable distance of their school.

The Ministry will consider requests from parents of a student to study one of the official mother tongue languages offered in the student's school which is not the student's own mother tongue.

Each such request is considered on a case-by-case basis.