Secondary School Transfer Appeals Due To Lack of Mother Tongue Language Offerings
Ministry of EducationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns a query by Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim regarding the annual average of secondary school transfer appeals due to unavailable Mother Tongue Language offerings and whether the Ministry monitors these trends to provide resources. Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing stated that Chinese and Malay are offered in all schools, while Tamil is available in most but not all schools due to limited teacher supply and low demand. He noted that the Ministry of Education receives an average of four such appeals per year and that 90% of Tamil students study the subject within their own secondary schools. The remaining students attend lessons at one of 11 regional school-based centres or the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre, which offer specialized learning environments with more language learners. Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing added that while trends are monitored for teacher recruitment, it remains impractical to offer Tamil in all schools where the number of learners is very small.
Transcript
50 Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Education (a) on average per year for the past five years, how many appeals have been received by the Ministry for transfer of secondary school for the reason that the school does not offer a particular mother tongue language as a subject; and (b) whether the Ministry monitors the trend of such appeals with a view to providing more resources to offer a certain mother tongue language where the demand for the subject is higher.
Mr Chan Chun Sing: Currently, all secondary school students who learn Chinese Language or Malay Language can access instruction in their school. Tamil Language instruction is available in the majority of but not all secondary schools, due to the limited supply of Tamil Language teachers and the low demand in some schools. Over the past five years, the Ministry of Education (MOE) received an average of four appeals per year for secondary school transfers due to the school not offering Tamil Language.
About 90% of students who study Tamil Language do so in their secondary school. The rest of the students attend lessons at one of 11 regional school-based centres, or at the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre. These centres offer a rich learning environment with more learners to engage in the use of Tamil Language.
MOE monitors trends in school transfer appeals related to mother tongue language availability, and factors this into our teacher recruitment and deployment. However, it is not practical to offer Tamil Language in all schools, due to the very small number of Tamil learners in some schools.