[lg policy] Singapore: Mother tongue weighting in Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) could be cut

Wed Apr 28 08:05:15 UTC 2010

A brief gloss for the baffled.....

(1) Education in Singapore (excluding private schools for foreigners) is essentially all English medium.

(2) 'Mother tongue' here means 'the language the child is required to study because it is the language that represents their paternal ancestry'. It does not refer to languages spoken before going to school.

(3) The biggest 'mother tongue' is Chinese (Mandarin). Although most children of Chinese ancestry now do start school already able to speak both English and Chinese, developing literacy in Chinese is intrinsically difficult.

(4) The more prestigious the family, the more likely they are to speak ONLY English at home, and many high prestige parents cannot support their children's development of literacy in Chinese.

I hope these 4 points make the article more understandable!

Anthea

*     *     *     *     *
Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
*     *     *     *     *

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From: lgpolicy-list-bounces+a.f.gupta=leeds.ac.uk at groups.sas.upenn.edu [lgpolicy-list-bounces+a.f.gupta=leeds.ac.uk at groups.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Harold Schiffman [hfsclpp at gmail.com]
Sent: 23 April 2010 14:50
To: lp
Subject: [lg policy] Singapore: Mother tongue weighting in Primary School       Leaving Examination (PSLE) could be cut

Mother tongue weighting in PSLE could be cut

Fri, Apr 23, 2010
The Straits Times

By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer

THE high weighting given to mother tongue languages in the Primary
School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is now under review and could be
reduced. Education Minister Ng Eng Hen says his ministry is studying
whether it is educationally sound for mother tongue language
performance to count for so much at the Primary 6 level. 'The worry is
whether it could exclude someone from progressing in his educational
pathway even if he did well in other subjects,' said Dr Ng in an
interview with The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao.
Mother tongue languages now carry the same weight - 25 per cent - as
the three other examinable subjects, English, mathematics and science.
The combined aggregate score taken from the grades of the four
subjects is used for entry into secondary school.

For years, parents have complained their children who excelled in all
other subjects except mother tongue have lost out on a place in top
secondary schools. Some have even ended up in the Normal stream for
academically weaker pupils. A mother tongue language review is now
under way that will take into account the prior backgrounds of pupils
and devise customised approaches. It will be completed by the end of
the year. Doing so will not blunt Singapore's bilingual edge but
strengthen it, Dr Ng said, by engaging the majority of students with
mother tongue lessons pitched at the correct level for them.

An earlier review of Chinese language conducted a few years ago has
already led to some changes. From 2012, all Primary 1 pupils will be
assessed on their Mandarin proficiency at the start of the school term
so that their lessons can be customised to their abilities. Other
measures include training teachers in using a bilingual approach to
teach pupils from English-speaking homes. Dr Ng said his ministry was
making these changes to ensure that the way languages are taught meets
the needs of different groups.
For those who want their children to study higher mother tongue to
understand their culture, he stressed that there is - and always will
be - a track for them to 'achieve maximum competency'. They can study
mother tongue language at a higher level. The Special Assistance Plan
schools is another avenue for those who excel in Chinese.

But he added there is a bigger group whose children are not as adept
in languages, compared to mathematics and science. Their parents wish
they did not have to spend so much time labouring over such an
excessive mother tongue 'language load', but could instead focus on
their strengths, be it in mathematics, science, sports or arts. 'But
because the system as it is now requires him to do well in his mother
tongue language to get into a good school, it limits his space,' he
said. He said that mother tongue language policy here has evolved over
the years. In 1973, English and second language were both given double
weighting - to encourage the study of English but at the same time
assuage the different races here. Those who had good language skills
excelled but some who could not cope left Singapore. Some went on to
thrive in the education systems of other countries. 'It was
Singapore's loss,' said Dr Ng.

In 1985, the policy was dropped after officials realised that such
language requirements were too demanding. He said most parents today
see the value in bilingualism, with the rise of China and India. 'But
we require such high standards for PSLE that the child has to spend
quite a lot of time doing it, sometimes to the exclusion of other
things.' Many parents equate mother tongue learning to running a
sprint, where everyone runs as fast as they can and there are few
winners. The rest are losers. 'Better to have a marathon system where
you are encouraged to finish the race, but it need not be in such a
short time,' said Dr Ng.

He noted that very few education systems worldwide place such a high
language load at primary level. 'We have to ask ourselves why. What is
the educational value of that?'
He said the ministry was now looking at how to accommodate the needs
of the different groups to arrive at a 'golden mean' - where those who
are proficient in mother tongue languages can be incentivised to go
further, yet at the same time, not penalising those who lag behind.
But he assured parents that any decisions made by the Education
Ministry have to be implemented with 'plenty of lead time' so that
there will be no mid-stream changes for those preparing for the PSLE.
.

 http://news.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20100421-211605.html

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