NON-CHINESE STUDENTS TAKING CHINESE LANGUAGE

Column No : 1375

NON-CHINESE STUDENTS TAKING CHINESE LANGUAGE

1.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong asked the Minister for Education (a) what is his Ministry's policy on non-Chinese students taking up Chinese language as their second language; and (b) if he will give a breakdown of how many Malays and Indians have taken Chinese as their second language from 1999-2004.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Our bilingual policy gives consideration to non-Chinese students who apply to take up Chinese as their second language. Approval is given on a case-by-case basis, for example, where students are of mixed parentage, or where the students have studied Chinese before.

On average the number of Malay and Indian students that took up Chinese as their second language in the last six years was less than 1% and 5% of their respective ethnic groups each year. In absolute numbers, we have a total of about 660 Malay and 2,000 Indian students studying Chinese as their second language in primary and secondary schools, Junior Colleges and the Centralised Institutes.

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