The Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages (BTTSAL), working together with the community groups, sets the curriculum for the five non-Tamil Indian languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The curriculum is based on the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and takes into account current teaching pedagogy. It is also genre-based to provide more meaningful learning in Singapore's national and educational contexts.

We agree with Ms Joshi that there is a need to ensure a meaningful curriculum for students. This was why a review of the curriculum was carried out in 2006-7. The new teaching syllabus has been phased in at Primary 5 and 6 this year to benefit students' learning.

Common teaching materials for the new syllabus have been published by Panpac and BTTSAL. Teachers have been briefed and are equipped with the necessary skills to implement the change.

We would like to reassure parents that additional support will be given to enable students to cope with the revised examination format.

The examinations at PSLE, N, O and A levels are set by the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) in conjunction with Cambridge International Examinations. Regular feedback on examination matters are provided by BTTSAL to SEAB. We wish to clarify that only 33 proverbs are required over two years at Primary 5 and 6, and not 120 as stated by Ms Mehrotra.

She had also said a number of Hindi teachers are not native speakers. While this may be so, we wish to reassure parents that the teachers are interviewed and assessed for their Hindi language proficiency.

BTTSAL is constantly looking for ways to improve the teaching and learning of the languages. We welcome parents' feedback. BTTSAL and the various community groups are also looking into ways to enhance the communication with the parents so that they are updated on the curricular changes. Should there be any queries regarding these, kindly contact us at bhajanpada@gmail.com.

Bhajan Singh
President
Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages