Singaporeans split on Mother Tongue Weighting

PSLE Mother Tongue weighting should not be reduced.

Statistic shows that Mother Tongue language has remained relatively stable over the past 10 years. In 2009, 98 per cent of the PSLE candidates passed their Mother Tongue language. Out of the 98 per cent, 13 per cent scored A-stars, 69 per cent scored A's, 11 per cent scored B's and 5 per cent scored C's. This result shows that the Mother Tongue weighting is not very high thus, it should not be reduced.

Mother Tongue may be our second language however, it is equally important as English. In today's society, being proficient in English is not enough. you also have to be preficient in your Mother Tongue language. In the business world, being able to communicate in English in not sufficient. You need to use Mother Tongue language to communicate with business partners from Chinese oriented countries like China.

Mother Tongue language is not only needed in the busniess world, but in our daily life. Older generation people like our great grandparents and grandparents whom are mostly Chinese educated, are not able to speak in English. Therefore, we are not able to communicate with them in English. In this case, Mother Tongue is essential for us to communicate with them.

Chinese, Malay and Indian culture have to be preserved for the future generations. Nowadays, Mother Tongue languages are not commonly practiced by the younger generations. If this continues on with the future generations, then in years to come, Chinese, Malay and Indian culture will be loss.

In conclusion, reducing the Mother Tongue weighting will be disadvantageous to the students in the future. If the weighting for the Mother Tongue language is reduced, students will think that Mother Tongue is not important in today's society, which is not the fact. Therefore, they will choose mot to learn Mother Tongue or to further improve on it.

Done by: Shirley