SINGAPORE – When news broke in 1979 that the medium of instruction in mainstream schools in Singapore would no longer be Mandarin, Madam Ang Kim Hui felt a sense of loss.
The retired teacher, who had just started her career then, thought she would have to give up teaching geography as she was trained to teach the subject only in Mandarin.
“I felt a sense of loss,” said Madam Ang, 76, who majored in geography when she graduated from Nanyang University in 1972.
Then, she was teaching geography and Chinese as a first language at Hai Sing Girls’ High, now called Hai Sing Catholic School.
In 1987, Singapore became one of the first countries in the world to adopt English as the language of instruction for most of the subjects – including geography, science, mathematics and history – taught in mainstream schools. The mother tongues of the country’s three major ethnic groups – Chinese, Malay, and Tamil – started to be taught in schools as secondary languages.
It was a major transition too for many other teachers who graduated from Nanyang University, which taught students a variety of disciplines in only Mandarin. The affected Chinese-medium teachers either had to pick up the English language to teach the same subjects, or switch to teaching only the Chinese language.
Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) introduced in 1979 training programmes for teachers to help them make the transition to English-medium instruction.
Madam Ang, however, could not commit to the six-month-long course. She was carrying her second child then and knew that her maternity leave would disrupt her training. She was subsequently not offered another chance at taking the course.
Colleagues who completed the course were later transferred to other schools to teach in English. But she found solace in the fact that she could stay and teach the Chinese language, having enjoyed teaching at Hai Sing Girls’ High.
Madam Ang also had to adjust her teaching methods and expectations for Chinese as a second language. The move to using simpler terms to elaborate on topics took some getting used to, she said.
Nevertheless, she pressed on, using festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival to help her students appreciate their mother tongue, Chinese culture and traditions.
In appreciation of the work of Chinese teachers in nation-building, SPH Media’s Chinese Media Group (CMG) will host a Teachers’ Day gala dinner on Sept 6.
The event is co-organised by the Society of Chinese Education Singapore and pays homage to about 500 Chinese-language teachers in Singapore. Held at Fairmont Singapore, it hopes to attract over 1,000 attendees, including past winners of CMG’s Outstanding Chinese Language Teacher Awards.
The 28th edition of the award will also be presented at the event to recognise current mainstream school Chinese teachers for their innovative pedagogies.
“When the drastic changes took place, the Chinese teachers’ morale was affected. Despite their personal setbacks, these teachers remained steadfast and resilient,” said CMG editor-in-chief Lee Huay Leng.
“This is the time to show our gratitude,” said Ms Lee, noting that many of CMG’s journalists were taught by these Chinese teachers.
Additionally, a virtual exhibition titled Campus Time Machine will be launched towards the end of August and will be available on the Lianhe Zaobao website.
It will be a digital showcase of school-related artefacts from the past, including photographs, Chinese-language maths and science textbooks, notes and report cards. For inquiries, the public can e-mail cmgevent@sph.com.sg
Madam Ang said: “This project is meaningful because it reminds students, the MOE and the community that there was a generation of teachers who taught science, maths, history and geography in Mandarin.”
“I hope students, with their parents’ encouragement, will recognise the importance of their mother tongue language and strive to learn and use it in their daily lives, rather than viewing Chinese as just an exam subject,” she added.
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Thanks for sharing!