Tongue-tied

Acting Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has been a busy man. In the last few weeks, he has slaughtered a few education sacred cows: streaming, school rankings and mother-tongue grades as a university admission requirement. Singapore's education system has always been an important component in the government's economic and nation-building strategy because the city state has only human resources to rely on for its progress and prosperity.

This may explain why competition is so intense to get into reputed schools. Young children start to take Chinese and English 'enrichment' classes from as early as three to prepare for entry into primary school (my son is one of them!) These classes usually continue throughout their first four years of primary schooling, at the end of which they face exams to separate them into three streams based on language and maths abilities.

This month, it was announced that streaming at the Primary Four level would be changed, with the two top merged and schools setting their own Primary Four exams. The lower stream (EM3), which still has a huge stigma attached to it, will remain for the time being. The changes came just one day after school rankings were scrapped, with schools and parents alike urged to take a more holistic approach, rather than focusing only on grades. And these followed other changes this year, including refinements to the mother-tongue language policy, with a relaxation of the higher mother-tongue language eligibility criteria.

In the current global environment, the ability to speak Chinese will be an advantage, and I, for one, am encouraging my boy to learn new words and sing Chinese songs, even though I have not got a clue what he is saying. But I have already been approached by his Chinese teacher, who said he will need additional classes because as yet he does not speak the language. He' only 31/2, for heaven's sake.

The pressures I am facing are also faced by the many well-educated Singaporean families who do not speak Chinese at home. Data from the education ministry shows that the number of Primary One Chinese students who speak English more frequently than any other language at home has risen from 10 per cent in 1980 to 50 per cent this year. The bilingual policy has taken a huge toll on the last two generations of Singaporeans, and many students have been forced to study abroad because they could not cope with the local system.

This is why the latest measures announced by the government have been welcomed by a silent majority, despite a vocal minority opposition. While Chinese-language advocates worry about falling standards and bemoan the loss of culture and identity, many welcome the change of pace. Some even argue that mother-tongue classes should be optional so that the language ceases to become a politicised issue. Well, we are not there just yet.