LKY bilingualism fund seeking proposals on pre—school learning

SINGAPORE: The Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism is seeking public views on ways to promote bilingualism among children at the pre—school level.

It is looking for proposals that will help to raise the quality of teaching and learning of the English and Mother Tongue languages in pre—schools, at home and in the community.

Ms Sim Ann, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education, said: "Ideas are what we’re looking for. We are not limiting ourselves at this stage to preconditions on how much to fund. I think that certainly this is one area where the public sector will not have a monopoly for the best ideas. Schools and institutions play an important role, but equally so do homes and (the) community."

The fund was first announced at the launch of the book, "My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore’s Bilingual Journey", by former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on November 28, 2011.

It aims to promote bilingual education and supplement efforts by the Ministry of Education (MOE), amidst changes in the home language environment.

For a start, the fund will focus on initiatives for the pre—school level to build a more supportive language environment for the child.

The proposals should promote language learning in the context of Singapore. They could take the form of teaching and learning resources, programmes, events and research.

The proposals will be evaluated based on criteria such as relevance, degree of impact and sustainability.

"We are inviting the public to submit their proposals to promote bilingualism because we believe that schools, parents and community partners play important roles in providing our children with opportunities to be immersed in an environment conducive to the learning of languages," said Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat.

Mr Heng is also the chairperson of the board for the fund.

Those who want to share their ideas and proposals can submit them by email to

MOE_LKYFB@moe.gov.sg

, or by mail and in person to the Ministry of Education at 51, Grange Road.

Those who submit their proposals by September 6 can expect to have their proposals evaluated and notified of the outcome in the fourth quarter of 2012.

More information on the Fund Application Guidelines and Application Form is available on

www.bilingualism.sg

.

To date, the fund has received S$119 million in pledges, including the government making a one—for—one matching donation to the fund, up to a cap of S$50 million.

—CNA/ac