No dilution of Mother Tongue

No dilution of MT's importance: Eng Hen

Education ministry 'emphasised that bilingualism has served Singapore well and will continue to be a cornerstone of our education system'. -ST

Wed, May 12, 2010
The Straits Times

By Rachel Lin

THE Education Ministry has no intention whatsoever of making mother tongue languages less important at the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

That was the assurance given by Education Minister Ng Eng Hen in a meeting on Saturday morning with three leading figures in the Chinese cultural community.

The trio are behind a petition which expresses concern about possible tweaks to the weighting of mother tongue at the PSLE.

In a statement issued after the meeting for the trio to disseminate, the Education Ministry said that Dr Ng 'emphasised that bilingualism has served Singapore well and will continue to be a cornerstone of our education system'.

Dr Ng also said that he and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would meet the media tomorrow and shed more light on the issue.

News of the meeting and Dr Ng's remarks were published on the blog of Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer and former DJ Danny Yeo, one of the three at the morning meeting.

The other two were Ms Lim Sau Hoong, chairman of the Promote Mandarin Council, and Mr Kok Heng Leun, artistic director of Mandarin theatre company Drama Box.

Mr Yeo wrote in his blog that Dr Ng's statements had given them a sense of relief.

He also said the group informed Dr Ng of their plan to gather signatures for a petition.

This was done at Hong Lim Park yesterday evening. The petition called for all mother tongue languages - whether Chinese, Malay, Tamil or English - to be given equal respect.

Some 2,400 signatures were collected in a little over two hours from individuals of all ages, the overwhelming majority of whom were Chinese.

Mr Kok said the group hopes to be able to hand over the petition to Dr Ng by tomorrow.

The event had been publicised through Mr Yeo's blog, mobile phone text messages, e-mail, Facebook and news articles.