I know it’s quite a serious topic but I felt the need to type out my opinion so here it goes, please endure.

Recently the debate of the town was regarding Ministry of Education’s idea to reduce the weightage of Mother Tongue language of the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination). Presently, a primary school child studies 4 subjects – English, Mother Tongue Language, Maths and Science. The weightage for each subject is at 25% and these adds up to a total of 100% for a child’s PSLE score. But now, there are plans to reduce the weightage of the Mother Tongue Language, lowering it to probably 20% or 15%.

The purpose claimed is to reduce the huge amount of stress faced by Primary school students when studying for their Mother Tongue Language, so as to make the learning of Mother Tongue Language more enjoyable, since there is less emphasis on grading.

Personally, I strongly object to this idea. But instead of condemning this idea, I would like to take a light-hearted approach.

Let’s begin by raising an analogy here using IPPT as an example since I am a NSF currently, and this is what I thought of.

First, I say PSLE is like IPPT, because both are tests and they rhymes.

Secondly, PSLE examines an individual’s knowledge accumulated during his course of study at Primary level. And IPPT gauge an individual soldier’s fitness level. So in a way, they are similar.

Thirdly, PSLE consist of English, Mother Tongue Language, Maths and Science, while IPPT consist of Sit-Ups, Standing Broad Jump, Shuttle Run, Pull-Ups and 2.4Km Run.

Lastly, Mother Tongue Language is like Standing Broad Jump because the higher the mark, the better you are.

By explaining the above factors, I just want it to be a fair comparison. Let’s start the scenario.

For example, if I know that I am poor in my Mother Tongue Language, I would practice and improve on it by reading, writing, listening and speaking more. If I knew that I could not “standing-broad jump” far enough to pass my IPPT, I would worked on my leg muscles more and even had to stay back for remedial training in the army. I believed most will agree with me on this –  you reap what you sow.

Next, lowering weightage of Mother Tongue Language is equivalent to lowering the passing mark on the standing broad jump mat. As a result, the standards of IPPT Gold, Silver and Pass will dropped. Same goes for the standards of Mother Tongue Language. Not sure if most will agree but by logic it’s sounds true.

It was also mentioned in the papers that there were instances of very bright students who excelled in English, Maths and Science except Mother Tongue Language, these people missed out on places in top schools as a result of poorer Mother Tongue Language proficiency. Actually, this is the group of people that I believed are the supporters of the idea.

With regards to this issue, let me continue the IPPT analogy. In the army, there will always be a minority group of soldiers who performed well for IPPT stations but for goodness sake, could not pass their standing-broad jump. How does camp commanders deal with this bunch of unfit soldiers?

They took away their nights out and implement remedial training! It’s tough at first, every soldiers hated it but slowly the results starts to show. Instead of lowering the standards, what MOE could do is to think of ways to help this group of children instead of accommodating their weakness.

Of course, you don’t go to command school if you fail your IPPT and do you deserve to go to top school if you don’t do well for your Mother Tongue Language?

Next, some parents being practical also questioned the time their child spend on studying of Mother Tongue Language, as their child could use the time to focus on English, Maths and Science. To answer this, I had to quote from my father – “always learn what you can learn, and keep it in your pocket, you never know when you will be using it.” To put it simply, it’s actually about keeping an open mind.

Lastly, I believed that a mind of a child is like a sponge. They learnt by absorbing knowledge from parents, teachers and the environment or through self-discovery, by playing or trial and error. Making mistakes and facing failure is part and parcel of life and is acceptable. The worst and most dangerous thing a parent can do is to narrow the mind of their child with their own adult perception and mindset and set limits for their own children – their imagination is lost forever.

Finally, the ministry can lower the weightage of Mother Tongue Language for all they want but a leader with foresight should work out what’s best for the future of Singaporean children.