Singapore To Increase Funding To Promote Bilingualism

Singapore will increase the funding to promote bilingualism in the country, from 16.6 million Singapore dollars (11.8 million U.S. dollars) to 25 million Singapore dollars (17.8 million U.S. dollars) over the next five years, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a press release on Saturday.
The funding will allow the three Mother Tongue Language Learning and Promotion Committees (MTLLPCs) to harness expertise, resources and energy of the public and community to promote Chinese, Malay and Tamil as living languages, said the ministry.
About 80 percent of government funds for each MTLLPC will be assured funding, while the rest will be set aside as a 1:1 matching grant for funds raised by the community, said MOE.
The committees have planned new initiatives to further promote the learning and usage of mother tongue languages, including working with local arts groups to bring literary and cultural activities to the heartlands, as well as engaging community partners to launch poetry and song-writing competitions.
The MTLLPCs were set up in 2005 and 2006 to rally community support in the learning and usage of Singapore's three official mother tongue languages. The committees have created initiatives such as tapping local writers and institutions to promote the languages, the press release said. (Cihan/Xinhua)