Review of Relevant Literature Text for Lower Secondary Classes with Global Pivot to Asia
Ministry of EducationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Mr Chong Kee Hiong's inquiry on whether the Ministry of Education will review lower secondary literature texts and include Asian classics due to the global pivot to Asia. Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung responded that the ministry updates its recommended text list every three years to ensure a balanced exposure to Singaporean, regional, and international works. Schools maintain the autonomy to select their own lower secondary materials, with a recent increased emphasis placed on literature from Singapore and Southeast Asia. Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung further noted that adapted excerpts from classics like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Sejarah Melayu are already integrated into Mother Tongue Language textbooks. The selection of these texts is consistently guided by educational objectives such as literary merit, age-appropriateness, and relevance to the contemporary global context.
Transcript
34 Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry will be considering a review of relevant literature texts for lower secondary classes in view of the global pivot to Asia; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider exposing our students to excerpts from great Asian literature classics such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: MOE has been reviewing and will continue to regularly review Literature texts. We do so based on educational objectives: the literary merit of the texts, their accessibility and age-appropriateness of language and themes, and their relevance to today’s context.
So for Literature in English, a text list for secondary school students is provided and updated every three years. This list comprises texts from Singapore, our region and other parts of the world. Given Singapore's position as a nation in Southeast Asia and a global city connected to the rest of the world, MOE needs to ensure a sufficiently wide range of texts, to allow students to be exposed to different cultures, beliefs and practices. Schools have a choice when it comes to selecting texts that best meet the needs of their students. At the lower secondary, they may choose from the recommended text list or select their own Literature texts.
In recent years, there has been a greater emphasis on texts from Singapore and the region. I think this is reflective of the point in history we are living in.
Beyond Literature, students are also exposed to texts as part of language learning. For the Mother Tongue Languages, adapted excerpts from suitable classics have been included in the textbooks. For Chinese Language, these include short stories extracted from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and selected poetry from the Tang Dynasty. Similarly, poetry and excerpts from ancient classics such as Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals), Panji Tales, Thirukural and Naladiyar are adapted and included in the Malay and Tamil Language textbooks.