SINGAPORE, Aug 1 — Singapore will expand its Mother Tongue Language Elective Programme from 2027, allowing more students to deepen their study of Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced the changes at the Mother Tongue Languages Symposium 2026, held at the Singapore EXPO on August 1, according to the Straits Times.

Education Minister Desmond Lee said, “Raising a bilingual child in an English‑dominated environment is not easy at all. Some parents worry that their own mother tongue is not strong enough for them to model the language to their children. But we do not need to be perfect speakers… what matters is effort and consistency.”

The Chinese Language Elective Programme at junior college level will be expanded to Anderson Serangoon JC, while the Tamil Language Elective Programme will be offered at the Umar Pulavar Tamil Language Centre.

Students from schools that do not provide Tamil electives will be able to take the subject at the centre, which also organises cultural programmes and showcases Indian performing arts.

The Malay (Special Programme) will be expanded to a fifth centre at National Junior College, giving students who wish to learn Malay as a third language more opportunities to study the subject.

Currently, the Malay programme is offered at 12 secondary schools and four centres — MOE Language Centre (Bishan), Bukit Batok Secondary, Tampines Secondary and Zhonghua Secondary.

Students whose schools do not offer the Malay (Special Programme) will attend lessons at the centre closest to their school.

Lee noted that home exposure to mother tongue has become more challenging as fewer families use it predominantly, but said it was encouraging that many Singaporean households continue to use both English and their mother tongue.

He encouraged parents to start small, such as reading picture books at bedtime, talking about their day in mother tongue, or listening to songs with their children.

The Mother Tongue Language Elective Programme, first introduced in 1990, aims to nurture students with high proficiency in their mother tongue and appreciation of literature and culture.

Students on the two‑year programme study literature in their languages and take part in local camps, overseas immersion trips and literary lectures.

MOE said the programme is designed to build a steady pipeline of bilingual and bicultural students who can strengthen regional ties and contribute to Singapore’s cultural identity.

The Chinese Language Elective Programme was launched in 1990, followed by Malay in 2001 and Tamil in 2020, with expansion to upper secondary levels in 2020.

MOE has also introduced measures to strengthen bilingual education, including allowing pupils who excel in mother tongue at PSLE to take higher mother tongue in secondary school.

In September, MOE will roll out the Artificial Intelligence Essay Marking System (AIMS) in secondary schools to help Chinese language teachers handle routine marking of grammar, spelling and sentence structure.

MOE said AIMS will allow teachers to focus on creativity, depth of expression and the quality of ideas in student work. Teachers will retain full authority to review and curate the feedback, ensuring it is contextually appropriate and tailored to learning needs.

Lee said, “AIMS will free up teachers from repetitive marking tasks, so they can spend more time guiding students in developing richer ideas and stronger expression.”

Teachers can customise AIMS’ parameters to suit different proficiency levels, enabling more targeted feedback for students of varying needs.

Lee added that new initiatives are being piloted, including programmes to expose infants to Chinese through sight, sound and touch, with similar efforts planned for Malay and Tamil.

Six MOE Kindergartens are also testing longer daily exposure to mother tongue, increasing from one hour to 1½ hours, with the ministry studying whether the pilot should be scaled up.