Singapore launched the first Innovative Chinese Language Portal
Thursday, aiming to enhance the teaching and learning of the
Chinese language in the city state.
"Essentially, what we have in this portal is a virtual
environment to facilitate new and innovative approaches by teachers
themselves, to enhance the learning of the Chinese language," said
Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the launching
ceremony.
Teachers can also network with each other, share their lesson
plans and create new techniques through this online platform, which
is expected to be connected to a similar Innovative Chinese
Teachers' Portal in China later.
A joint effort of the Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union,
Microsoft Singapore and the Education Ministry's Schools East
Branch, the portal is part of Microsoft Singapore's Partners In
Learning project.
Currently available to teachers in the East Zone and part of the
South Zone in the city state, the portal will eventually be made
accessible to all local Chinese language teachers, according to the
minister.
Singapore, with about 78 percent of its population being
ethnically Chinese, has been attaching increasing importance to the
Chinese Language education in the past few years.
The Education Ministry launched several initiatives last year to
introduce experimentation in teaching techniques and try new
curriculum in selected primary schools, which placed more emphasis
on character recognition than on script writing.
The annual Speak Mandarin Campaign, launched in 1979, also helps
encourage Chinese ethnics with English education background to get
familiar with Chinese culture and speak the Chinese language as
much as possible in their daily life.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2006)
