Plans to Expand Offering of Non-standard Subjects at Neighbourhood Secondary Schools
Ministry of EducationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms He Ting Ru’s inquiry into expanding non-standard subject offerings, like music and third languages, at neighbourhood schools in Sengkang and Punggol. Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing explained that due to small enrollment sizes, these subjects are provided through designated centres and specific schools to ensure accessibility. Currently, Malay and Chinese Special Programmes are available at 16 and five schools respectively, alongside zonal centres, while foreign languages are centralized at two MOE Language Centres. Music is offered at all lower secondary levels, with upper secondary music available at over 25% of schools and 12 elective centres spread across Singapore. Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing noted that MOE will continue monitoring these centres to ensure they remain accessible to all interested students.
Transcript
19 Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Education whether there are plans to expand offerings of non-standard subjects such as music or third language, for them to be directly available at neighbourhood Secondary schools, in particular, in Sengkang and Punggol.
Mr Chan Chun Sing: Elective subjects, such as Music and Third Language, are not offered in all schools, as the enrolment could be too small to form a class. Hence, MOE has designated music/language centres spread across Singapore for students whose schools do not offer these subjects.
For students offering MTL as third languages, Malay (Special Programme) [M(SP)] and Chinese (Special Programme) [C(SP)] are currently available at 16 and five schools, respectively, in different parts of Singapore. There are also four zonal centres for M(SP) and two for C(SP) to cater to students from other schools. Foreign Language (French/German/Japanese/Spanish) classes are all held centrally at the two MOE Language Centres, as student numbers remain small.
Music is offered to lower Secondary students in all schools. At the upper Secondary level, more than 25% of Secondary schools, well spread across Singapore, offer Music, as an elective subject, to their own students. Students enrolled in schools that do not offer Music at the upper Secondary level may choose to pursue it at 12 centres, also equally spread across the country. We will continue to monitor and assess if these centres continue to be accessible to interested students from all schools.