Singapore minister's pitch to introduce children to Tamil language. Here's why

Singapore minister Indranee Rajah said language was not something that one could only study. "You need to put it to use,” she said.

Published on: Apr 5, 2024, 13:50:28 IST

By HT News Desk

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Singapore minister Indranee Rajah recently emphasised the need to introduce its children to Tamil, one of the four official languages in the city-state. “We need to ensure our children have opportunities to be constantly exposed to Tamil language,” she said. Rajah, an Indian-origin minister in the Singapore government, said the Tamil language acts as a "passport" that links all Tamil people. Language is not something that one can only study, she said. "You need to put it to use,” she added.

“Be it through television, social media, or print, as long as they are hearing, listening, and using the language from young, we can keep it alive,” Rajah was quoted by the Friday weekly Tabla.

The Tamil Language Council in Singapore (TLC) has been organising the language festival for the past 18 years to uphold the rich legacy of the Tamil language. Singapore's minister Indranee Rajah launched this year’s festival last Saturday.

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The TLC, centred on the theme of ‘capabilities,’ will be held from March 30 to April 28 this year and feature 47 programmes. “This year’s theme was selected to inspire the creation of innovative programmes while harnessing our collective strengths,” TLC chairperson S Manogaran said.

More than 65 per cent of the programmes at the Tamil language festival are organised by the youth. “Many of our youths today are finding a new purpose in learning and using Tamil; many of the programmes are targeted at them,” Tabla quoted Manogaran.

The Singapore education system encourages the use of the mother tongue as a second language in schools, which includes Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and other main Indian languages, as well as Tamil, Malay, and Chinese (Mandarin).

Former Singapore cabinet minister S Iswaran also stressed the government's commitment to keeping Tamil as an official language earlier. Iswaran's remarks appeared in an interview published in ‘The Tamil Community and the Making of Modern Singapore,’ a book on the South Indian community. In his remarks, the former minister expressed the government's support for Tamil to be used as a language in parliament and as a subject in schools along with English, Chinese and Malay.

(With PTI inputs)

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