Lack of mother tongue options in pre-schools
An issue of supply, demand and cultural heritage
Some concerned about growing lack of linguistic diversity among children
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A class at MOE Kindergarten @ Horizon in January. All 36 kindergartens under the Ministry of Education offer all three mother tongues. The same will apply to 24 more kindergartens MOE plans to open by 2025. To expand mother tongue options, attracting teachers is key, said the Early Childhood Development Agency.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Justin Ong
When Mr Raj started looking at pre-schools for his 13-month-old twins, he was hopeful they would have the chance to learn Tamil, which is spoken by his family.
But the closest centre offering the mother tongue language was too far away, and did not have vacancies. So the public servant and his wife settled for a nearby school that offered Chinese as the lone mother tongue option.
