More students to pursue mother tongue languages under expanded program from 2027

Singaporean students will have greater opportunities to study mother tongue languages and literature at an advanced level from 2027. The Ministry of Education (MOE) is expanding its Mother Tongue Language Elective Programme to offer more students a chance to deepen their language skills and cultural understanding.

Under the expanded program, access to the Tamil language elective program will broaden at both secondary and junior college levels through a new center-based approach at the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre. This will allow students from schools not currently offering the program to participate and create a clearer pathway from secondary school to junior college. The Chinese language elective program at the junior college level will also expand to a sixth school, Anderson Serangoon Junior College.

The Malay (Special Programme), which enables students whose mother tongue is not Malay to learn it as a third language, will also be enhanced. National Junior College will become the program's fifth center, increasing access for more students. Education Minister Desmond Lee stated, "We want to create pathways for students who want to learn mother tongues more deeply."

Additionally, MOE is piloting increased mother tongue language exposure in its kindergartens, with daily exposure rising from one to 1.5 hours. The ministry is studying these early, encouraging results to assess potential scaling up. From September, a new AI essay marking system for Chinese language will be launched in secondary schools to assist teachers with routine marking tasks, freeing them to focus on students needing more guidance.

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We want to create pathways for students who want to learn mother tongues more deeply.