Strengthening Learning of Mother Tongue Languages

The Ministry of Education announced that Higher Malay Language (HML) and Higher Tamil Language (HTL) would be offered to Primary 3 and Primary 4 students from 2022 and 2023 respectively, giving more students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and appreciation of the languages and cultures from an early age.

Second Minister for Education Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman announced the move during a visit to Westwood Primary School, one of the pilot schools for the new curriculum. The programme exposes students to ethnic literature, develops higher-order thinking skills, and teaches grammar and syntax through creative activities and games. The pilot involved 35 primary schools in 2020 and 54 schools in 2021, with positive feedback from students and teachers.

The expanded HML and HTL offering complements Higher Chinese Language (HCL) for Primary 3 and 4 students, as well as HCL, HML and HTL for Primary 5 and 6 students, supporting students with strong interest and aptitude in Mother Tongue Languages to pursue them at a higher level.

Dr Maliki, Chairperson of MLLPC, also launched the Primary 5 and 6 Nabil Nabilah Reader Series, which comprises two books containing 20 locally themed short stories written by primary school Malay Language teachers. The series supports students’ reading and literacy development and complements the earlier P1–2 and P3–4 collections, bringing the full series to 42 books.

Read the full press release on MOE website ↗ (opens in new tab)