TEACHING OF MALAY LANGUAGE (Extension beyond top non-Malay students)

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TEACHING OF MALAY LANGUAGE:

(Extension beyond top non-Malay students): 21.

Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Education whether the Government intends to extend the teaching of the Malay Language beyond the five percent top non-Malay students who wish to study the language.

Mr Chan Soo Sen (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, under the Malay (Special Programme) (or MSP), Malay is currently available as a third language to non-Malay students who are within the top 30% of the PSLE cohort, if they also do well in Mother Tongue and English. Over 640 students currently offer MSP at the MOE Language Centre in Bishan.

To encourage more non-Malay students to offer MSP, the Ministry of Education has decided and announced that we are lifting the current criteria so

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that students may offer Malay as a third language so long as they have the interest and inclination. Students will be able to do so at the MOE Language Centre from 2007 onwards. Schools that have the resources can also offer MSP within their schools this year.

The Ministry of Education is also increasing its teacher resources to allow MSP to be provided in more schools and centres, where there is a critical mass of interested students.

Many of our schools are also offering conversational Malay lessons to their students. MOE is encouraging more schools to do so, and is looking into how they can be supported.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, the Minister says that the Ministry is extending the number of students beyond the 30% mark of cohort. So, how many percent, please?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: Sir, what I was saying was that in the past, only the top 30% within the PSLE cohort could offer MSP. But we have relaxed the criteria so that any student, so long as they are interested and have the inclination, will be able to do so. This is to allow more students to learn Malay as a third language, in addition to English as well as their Mother Tongue.