Lowering of weightage of Mother Tongue in PSLE

The Minister for Education, Ng Eng Hen, is currently deciding on whether to lower the weightage of Mother Tongue in PSLE. Their reasons for doing so is for students who are weak in MT (Mother Tongue) but excel in other subjects to move on and not get affected by low MT PSLE results. There have been mixed reactions over this issue. In my opinion, the pros (serves as ‘escape route’ for students who are weak in MT) are certainly not worth the cons. There are two sides to this issue, one side supports it and the other is against it.

Those who support this find that lowering the weightage will benefit those who are good in other subjects but weaker in MT. This will give them a chance to enter their dream schools as long as they excel in the other three subjects. However, this is the only benefit of this decision and it only benefits students who are significantly weaker in MT but the benefits is only for the short-term. I will go on to elaborate on this later.

On the other hand, the cons totally outweigh the benefits. Students who excel in their MT will now be at a disadvantage as MT will count less in their PSLE, this will cause students to take the subject less seriously and eventually neglect it just because it is of a lower weightage. Students will place less emphasis on MT and spend less time studying it. Reducing the weightage could lead to an overall drop in Chinese standards. If this move is implemented it is sending the message that people who master English are superior than those who master MT and not English. Singapore has repeatedly emphasized the importance of bilingual language but isn’t this move sending a contradictory message that MT is not as important as other subjects?

The main reason why Singaporeans do well in other countries is because of the fact that we are BILINGUAL and that gives us an edge over many others from other countries. China has the third largest economy in the world and it is necessary for us to maintain relationships with China via communication. If students were given the chance to shirk of learning of MT, we are simply placing a barrier between us and China. If this goes on, we will lose the advantage we currently possess as other countries are placing great emphasis on Chinese Language unlike Singapore which is considering to lower its weightage (my interpretation would be: lower its importance). Thus, we will eventually lose out in the global market. Is it worth it? My answer is a certain NO.

For me MT has been one of my best subjects since I started schooling and English has been my weakest. I find that it is really unfair as MT would no longer be able to average out with my English marks and result in me having a huge disadvantage. If the weightage of MT was lowered just because some parents came up to protest, why not lower the weightage of every single subject anyone is weak in? Why not remove education (I would be glad to end studying haha)? If students were unhappy about MT pulling down their marks, they should put in more effort in studying it instead of complaining here and there. If every student complains about the subject they are weak in and the MoE does exactly what it is doing now, I guess Singapore will become the truly unique no-education country.