Ministry of Education of the Republic of Singapore

02/26/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 02/26/2024 04:38

Tamil and Non-Tamil Indian Languages Candidature & Funding

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Pritam Singh, Aljunied GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) what was the overall cohort size and of that the total number of students taking Tamil and Non-Tamil Indian languages (NTILs) for each year from 2013 to 2023 for (i) PSLE (ii) N-level (iii) O-level and (iv) A-level examinations respectively; and (b) what is the difference in funding, expressed as a percentage, between Tamil language as an official mother tongue language and each of the other five NTILs per student.

Response

1.The Member may refer to Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) press releases, which are published on SEAB's website annually, for total candidature sizes. For Tamil and NTIL candidature, the question has been addressed by Question 20 as published in the Circular for Written Answers on 6 Feb 2024.

2.The per-student funding for NTILs is around 70% of that for the three official Mother Tongue Languages.