The "Mother Tongue" Bilingual Education Policy in Singapore

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Comparative Perspectives on Education for Bi/multilingual Students

Abstract

Since 1983, Singapore implemented a bilingual policy in schools, which assigns a mother tongue language subject based on a student's registered race: Mandarin for Chinese, Melayu for Malays, and Tamil for Indians. This paper critically examined this controversial policy using data available from Census and Ministry of Education. We found that the bilingual education policy has drastically reduced the variety of language and promoted English as the household language. An analysis of different racial groups’ academic performance in the “mother tongue” language suggests that this policy has exacerbated racial inequalities. Three policy revisions are proposed: renaming “mother tongue” language as “Asian language”, providing more language choices and exemptions, and reducing the stakes on mother tongue language exam.

Authors

• Qiyang Zhang, Johns Hopkins University

• Martin Scanlan, Boston College