[lg policy] Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew “mistake” made in his education policy: insisting on bilingualism

[Harold Schiffman]

MM Lee admits “mistake” made in his education policy
November 18, 2009 by admin


In a rare public admission of his mistake, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan
Yew said his insistence on bilingualism in the early days of education
policy was “wrong” which caused many students to give up learning the
Chinese language. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said his insistence on
bilingualism in the early years of education policy was “wrong”.
Instead it caused generations of students to be put off the Chinese
language. During a speech made at the official opening of the
Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, MM Lee said:

“We started the wrong way. We insisted on ting xie (listening), mo xie
(dictation) – madness! We had teachers who were teaching in
completely-Chinese schools. And they did not want to use any English
to teach English-speaking children Chinese and that turned them off
completely.”  Following the rise of China in the 1980s, Singapore has
embarked on a nationwide effort to promote the study of the Chinese
language in schools. The Republic has established close trading links
with China in recent years and Chinese is becoming more important as a
language to build bridges with the Chinese-speaking world including
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

During the early days of Singapore’s independence, many Chinese
schools were closed down on suspicions of being breeding ground for
communism. Though they were later re-opened, English had replaced
Chinese as the medium of education leading to a decline in the
standard of Chinese in Singapore schools over the years. While most
ethnic Singaporean Chinese can read and write in Chinese, English
remains the lingua franca used in work. Many are also ignorant of
Chinese culture, history and literature.

Besides the language policy, Lee had made a few notable mistakes
during the course of his political career such as the “Stop at Two”
policy in the 1970s which contributed partly to Singapore’s declining
birth rate today. Another controversial policy was the “graduate
mother scheme” to encourage graduate women to bear more children. A
strong proponent of eugenics, Lee thought (and still think) that
offsprings of graduate women will be smarter and of “better stock”.
The scheme was quietly dropped in the aftermath of the 1984 elections
which saw the PAP lost a significant percentage of the votes cast.

At 86 years of age, Lee is the oldest and probably the longest-serving
MP in the world. He appears in the papers almost daily, more
frequently than his son, the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien
Loong. Lee said lately that he could have earned more money in the
private sector if he was not a minister. His annual salary is more
than five times that of U.S. President Barack Obama. With more and
more mainland Chinese flocking to work and live in Singapore,
English-educated Singaporeans may have to relearn the language in
order to communicate with these newcomers and to “re-integrate” into
Singapore society.

http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/18/mm-lee-admits-mistake-made-in-his-education-policy/

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