NURTURING A CORE OF STUDENTS WITH ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE OF CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

1. To engage China as it grows in importance, Singapore needs a core group of students who are not only highly competent in Chinese, but also have a strong understanding of China’s history, culture and contemporary developments. Singapore needs to nurture a bicultural orientation amongst these students so that they can understand and engage China hinese as well as relate to the West.

2. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will be starting the Bicultural Studies Programme (Chinese) in the Hwa Chong family of schools (The Chinese High School, Nanyang Girls High School and Hwa Chong Junior College) and Dunman High School in year 2005. This is a 4-year programme starting from Secondary 3 to JC 2. In addition to Higher Chinese, students in the programme will be able to offer electives such as Chinese history and Chinese philosophy. MOE envisages that about 200 students will take up this programme in the first year.

3. Both the Hwa Chong family of schools and Dunman High School are currently working on the detailed curriculum of the programmes. They will be announcing details of their programmes soon.

4. In addition, MOE will organise enrichment programmes such as the Bicultural Studies Camp and Bicultural Studies Symposium for students from the different BSP(C) schools to interact and share their experiences among themselves and with the community.

5. MOE will also be starting the SAP scholarship scheme for highly able students in the BSP(C). At the JC level, these scholars will take Chinese Language and Literature, and China Studies in Chinese, the latter being a new subject offered in the new JC curriculum from 2007 and which can be offered at H1 level (i.e. not a full ‘A’ level subject).[1] We expect that about 100 scholarships will be awarded in the first year of the programme. Like the Humanities and Language Elective Programme (LEP) scholars, the SAP scholars will be given a scholarship allowance of $1000 per annum. Their school fees will also be waived. In addition, they will also receive funding for immersion in China for up to 6 months, and in another country for another 2 weeks, during their 4-year programme.

6. Top SAP scholars may qualify for the Overseas Merit Scholarship offered by the Public Service Commission to pursue undergraduate study in top PRC and other universities. Others will be eligible for undergraduate scholarships offered by ministries, statutory boards, government-linked companies or private companies with business interests in China.

7. Our school system currently has several incentives and programmes to encourage Chinese students to learn the Chinese Language (CL) to as high a level as they can. Higher CL is available from Primary 1 to JC 2. There are 15 primary and 10 SAP secondary schools under the Special Assistance Programme (SAP). SAP provides environments conducive to learning CL to a high level of competence. The Language Elective Programme (Chinese) is offered at three junior colleges, catering to about 150 students per cohort, and aims to further deepen students’ appreciation of the Chinese Language and Literature.

8. The idea for the BSP(C) was first mooted in June 2004 by then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who felt the need to go beyond bilingualism to nurture a group of highly able Singaporeans with an interest in and capacity to engage China in future. They will go through a more intensive Chinese curriculum and significant immersion in China.

3 Sep 2004

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

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[1] The revised JC curriculum to be introduced from 2006 will offer subjects at different levels of depth, H1, H2 and H3, with H1 being half the content load of H2, which is equivalent to our full 'A'-level subject currently. H3 is the equivalent of the current 'S'-paper. This gives greater flexibility for students to pursue each subject to different depth depending on their aptitude and passion. China Studies is a new JC subject that will be introduced in 2007 and first examined in 2008. It will be available in either H1 or H2, and both Chinese and English, although the content of the two versions may vary. SAP scholars will be required to take the subject in Chinese at either H1 or H2 level. This will give students the flexibility to study other subjects should they wish to.