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Mother Tongue weighting for PSLE to remain
By Hwee Goh | Posted: 11 May 2010 1511 hrs
SINGAPORE: The weighting of the Mother Tongue language will not be reduced at the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). Instead it will be taught in a new way to cater to differing abilities and to meet the dynamic needs of the student population.
Right at the top of an hour-long interview, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong set the record straight on the weighting issue.
But change is still ahead in a big way.
Mr Lee has stressed many times the fluidity of the situation in terms of new research and IT in the teaching of language.
And this year, Primary Six students will take their exams based on a new syllabus rolled out after a review as recent as in 2004.
PM Lee said: "We have to look ahead because if we don't, by the time the situation is upon us and we start thinking and then we make changes, it's another five years and we will be chasing our tail again.
"And meanwhile another five years of students will have their less optimal experience with Mother Tongue, and to put it bluntly, we will have quite a lot of trouble with Mother Tongue."
Mr Lee also addressed the huge debate after media reports that the Education Ministry was looking at whether to reduce the weighting of the Mother Tongue Language (MTL).
Education Minister Ng Eng Hen explained: "In my interview, I said MOE was looking at options to address the overemphasis on exams, where 'MTL counts for so much in the PSLE'.
"Singaporeans became concerned that MOE was proposing to reduce the weighting of MTL in PSLE. This is not the case. I think I should have chosen my words more carefully and apologise for creating the wrong impression."
Mr Lee said: "We watched the reaction develop. ... We knew we needed to respond but at the same time we wanted to make sure that we put the whole picture out and not just put out a quick reassurance - sorry everybody is upset, therefore we are not doing anything and fall back onto the status quo because the status quo is not tenable.
"We have to move, we have to change the content, we have to change the resources, we have to change the examinations."
In fact, in February at the Istana, the Prime Minister and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew met key Education Ministry officials and 50 Mother Tongue educators to share with them the need to change and to tap their ideas, moving forward.
PM Lee said many who have benefited from Singapore's bilingual education had spoken up this time and that he shares the goals of these parents to keep bilingualism alive and yet give students their best head start possible.
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I believe that the current weightage of PSLE Mother Tongue Language(MTL) is fairly reasonable. From what i can understand from this article is that parents have misunderstood the speech from the Ministry Of Education(MOE), thinking that MOE is going to reduce the weightage of MTL. However, they have affirmed parents about the weightage that it is going to remain the same. The only change now is the method of teaching MTL by using advance technology, which is good as students are now more comfortable with computers and so on. My main concern is about MTL weightage increasing higher than the weightage for English Language. As English is the very core language that we use. It is known as an international language to be used as a form of communication. I believe that the prime minister is still trying to re-emphasize that English Language is still our top priority and not forgetting MTL as our next most important language. If MTL weightage were to increase above English Language, it defeats the importance of communications.
ReplyDelete- Melissa
When I heard the news saying that they are not going to reduce weightage for our Mother Tongue in PSLE as I felt that Mother Tongue is our mother language we should not forget our root while we improve our English too.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that lot of the parents sign and asking not to reduce the weightage after Education Minister Ng Eng Hen speak, China is also improving so future people may like to work with the Chinese at least we have the base. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong add on on his speak that for Mother Tongue we should have a rich base on it and shall not have a cover for it. Mean they will keep on Mother Tongue so that future kids can benefit in two language while they are at work or social with other more easy.
Lim ZhiHao
From the above article, i think that MOE should not reduce the weightage of Mother Tongue Language (MTL)and should just remain the same. Most children these days speak English at home and with their friends but that does not mean that they should forget about learning the MTL and thinking it is a difficult subject.
ReplyDeleteMTL teachers these days even think of a lot of interesting ways to teach MTL to the primary 1 students from the beginning of their primary education so that the students will be interested in learning MTL.
English is an international language but Chinese is important as well as we are Chinese, it will be a laughing stock if we Chinese do not know how to speak Chinese. Just like what Prime Minster Lee had mentioned, being bilingual, will definitely benefit in the future. I hope that parents will understand the importance of the two languages.
Helena Leong (101678k)
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