November 27, 2009 by admin
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By Kor Kian Beng from Straits Times, 27 November
2009
IN SEPTEMBER 1989, a Singaporean mother, Mrs Pauline Tan, wrote
an impassioned letter to The Straits Times, criticising the way the
Chinese language was taught in schools here and the impact it had
on her nine-year-old son.
She said her son, then studying in Primary 3 at a Methodist
school, was having suicidal thoughts because he hated having to
study Chinese every day.
Wrote Mrs Tan: ‘He was constantly ridiculed and scolded by his
Chinese teacher. He felt ashamed and shunned his classmates. He
found Chinese boring. It is spelling, dictation, writing, tests and
more spelling, dictation, writing and tests.’
As a result, she and her husband made plans to migrate to
Australia. It was to spare her son further misery with the Chinese
language, wrote Mrs Tan. The couple also have a younger son, who
was aged five then.
Her letter sparked widespread criticisms, with many readers –
especially those from the Chinese-educated community – lambasting
her controversial move.
Many wrote in to express their anger over the Tans’ ‘absurd’
decision, and pointed out that Chinese-educated Singaporeans also
had to overcome difficulties with the English language to compete
with the English-educated for jobs.
One reader said: ‘At times, I find some English-educated Chinese
Singaporeans too pampered.’
Some readers showed sympathy, saying the school and parents
should have detected the problem earlier and done something to help
the boy before he got into serious difficulties with the
language.
For the next 20 years, there was no news about Mrs Tan and her
family – until this week when she penned another letter to The
Straits Times, which was published on Tuesday.
It was in response to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s comments
last week that the Government had made mistakes with the bilingual
policy.
She wrote: ‘I am comforted that finally someone at this high
level of government has come round to see my point of view, which I
have voiced for a long time.’
She was also pleased with Mr Lee’s comments that the policy
would be adjusted to suit students of different abilities.
Speaking to Insight on the phone from Brisbane, Mrs Tan, 60,
said the family had obtained Australian permanent residency in 1990
but uprooted for Down Under only two years later.
That was because the couple wanted their elder son to complete
his Primary School Leaving Examination here, and time to wind up
the family business. She declined to specify the industry.
She had also harboured hopes that there might be changes to the
education system after the publication of her letter – and after
she contacted the Ministry of Education for help. But her elder son
told her that the situation had barely improved in his school.
Mrs Tan acknowledged that the home environment was a key factor
in determining a child’s interest towards the learning of any
language. The couple were English-educated and spoke mostly English
to the boys at home.
Still, she felt that the teaching style could have been less
harsh, and the bilingual policy more flexible, to suit various
types of students. ‘We definitely wouldn’t have migrated if the
situation had been different,’ she said.
On the adverse reaction to her 1989 letter, Mrs Tan said that
she was unperturbed by it.
She said: ‘I was just a voice saying the policy was wrong and
that we should make changes. I wasn’t trying to make people follow
my example.’
After all, it was not easy in the new land, as the couple
encountered challenges like loneliness, she said.
The couple ran an export business, and later a property
consultancy, until they retired two years ago.
But Mrs Tan said she felt she had made the right decision when
she saw her sons enjoying and doing well in school again.
She declined to name her sons nor let Insight speak to them. The
reason is that they are not aware that she had written to the
press. She said only her husband knew about the Forum letters.
Both sons, aged 29 and 25, graduated from Queensland University
of Technology and are doing well in life, said Mrs Tan.
Her elder son is now working as an IT specialist in Brisbane and
the younger one is doing his doctorate studies in mathematics at
Oxford University.
She said her elder son still feels bitter over his school
experience.
‘When we returned to Singapore for visits, I would ask him at
times if he wanted to visit his primary school. He did not want to
go back there at all.’
Does the family plan to move back some day? Mrs Tan would only
say that her sons now feel more Australian than Singaporean, though
she still feels ‘deeply Singaporean’.
‘It’s such a pity that Singapore has lost some talented people
as a result of some of its policies,’ she said. – ST
Republished from Straits Times, 27 November
2009
