Bid to get students to stay the course

Straits Times, 21 August 2007

NATIONAL DAY RALLY 07
REACTIONS
BONUS POINTS FOR MALAY
3rd language incentives offered for JC entry to stem high dropout rate before O levels

EACH year, about 300 students sign up for Malay as a third language at
Secondary 1, but only one in five ends up taking the subject for the O-level examinations.
To get more non-Malays to learn Malay and stay the course, the Education Ministry is offering two bonus points for junior college entry to those who pass Malay at the O levels.
Students can now also use their Malay grade in lieu of a humanities subject for their L1R5 (first language plus five relevant subjects) aggregate score for JC entry.
These incentives will also apply to the 200 non-Chinese students who study Chinese as a third language each year.
The same goes for those taking Bahasa Indonesia, to be offered as a third language from next year.
A Regional Studies Programme, whereby students study Malay or Bahasa Indonesia and learn more about South-east Asia, will also be rolled out next year.
Giving details of these initiatives at a press conference yesterday, Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew said the measures will help groom a group of non-Malays who can “effectively engage the region”.
The incentives will kick in with the current Sec 3 cohort.
Since 1986, non-Malay students have been able to study Malay as a third
language under the Malay Special Programme (MSP), which is offered in 14 schools and four centres.
The Chinese Special Programme (CSP),started three years ago, is offered in 11 schools and two centres.
To give CSP and MSP students continued exposure after secondary school, an elective similar to the Japanese or French A-level elective in JCs will also be introduced.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that “too few” young non-Malays were fluent in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia.

Malay has not been as popular a third language as Japanese, German and French. These three languages draw 1,200 Sec 1 students, or an average of 400 each, a year.
More students also go on to take these languages at the Olevels – about 400 in total, or one in three.
Teachers and students interviewed yesterday felt that the latest measures will encourage more non-Malays to learn Malay.
Ms Latifah Mohamedzen, teacher in charge of the MSP at Bukit Batok Secondary, believes the bonus points will encourage more to sign up.
It may also stem the attrition rate, she added. Many students start to drop out as the lessons begin to clash with their co-curricular activities (CCAs). Some focus on their CCAs as they can get JC entry points for them.
Methodist Girls’ School student Ng Tze Shien, 13, chose Malay over other third languages as it was “more practical”. She thinks the incentives will draw more students.
“Some people may not be good in humanities, but are good in languages. Malay is quite easy to learn as a language,” she said.

After reading this article, I felt quite glad that I’m still taking Japanese as my third language. This is because of the fact that from RI, there are currently only 14 students from my batch left still studying Japanese.

It has been quite disheartening for me to see a lot of my friends who dropped third languages as they move on to the second or third year of their Secondary school education. I decided to take Japanese because I was aware of the advantages. Not only are we able to study in other countries, we are also giving ourselves more opportunities to extend into the rest of the world. For example, since I study Japanese, I will be able to work in Japan in the future.

The article talks about the government’s approach to ensure that there are many non-Malays who take Malay as third language and stay in the course. This is due to the fact that four out of five drop it before ‘O’ levels. I think the government has made the correct move to let Malay grades be used as part of the aggregate score for JC entry.

This alone has made taking Malay attractive. Not only are there free Malay lessons, it is also helpful in JC entry, which should be exceptionally appealing to students like Rafflesians who care a lot about 1 or 2 marks. From another viewpoint, the government succeeds because not only would there be more students taking Malay, those students will also continue to stay in the course for the whole 4 years and try their best to do well, which is what the government aims to do.

The government hopes to groom a group of non-Malays who can effectively engage the South-east Asia region. I agree with what the government is hoping to achieve. 20 to 30 years down the road, it will be our turn to take on the leadership of Singapore. To ensure that Singapore can communicate well with countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, Malay (and also Bahasa Indonesia which will be introduced) is crucial. Our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong can speak Malay very well too.

However, from a Japanese student’s viewpoint, if more students take Malay, what will happen to Japanese, French and German? Wouldn’t there be less students taking them? The spread of students among the 4 languages will inevitably become unbalanced. As such, I feel that while trying to get more students for Malay course, the government has overlooked the possible effects. I must say that it could be because I am biased towards the foreign languages as a Japanese student, but the impact is possible.

But I know that it is difficult to balance both sides of the situation. Either they get an inadequate number of students who take Malay or they attract students to take Malay and sacrifice the foreign languages. I can quite understand the government’s decision as Malay as compared to the other third languages is more important to Singapore.