MTL Overview

Curricular Goals:
Bilingual education being one of the cornerstone of Singapore’s education system, has a positive effect on intellectual growth and enhances children’s mental development. We strongly believe that learning MTLs: enable our children to have a deeper appreciation of their own culture to communicate widely with people and gain broader perspectives

The 2015 MOE MTL curriculum places greater emphasis on teaching and learning of spoken and written interaction skills.
Building on the 2015 curriculum, the refreshed 2024 Primary MTL curriculum will place greater emphasis on developing students’ 21st Century Competencies such as intra- and cross-cultural skills, communication skills, as well as critical and inventive thinking. It aims to cultivate students’ appreciation of their MTL and to build in them the confidence to learn and use their MTL for life. It will also broaden the use of authentic contexts and materials that relate to students’ interests and daily lives. The curriculum will be rolled out progressively, starting from the Primary 1 cohort in 2024.

Teachers will continue to employ multi-modal approaches, including meaningful use of technology, to engage and support students in learning MTL. Students can look forward to more extensive use of gamification and differentiated resources, to sharpen their language skills at their own time and pace beyond the classroom. Parents are encouraged to tap on these resources to support their child’s learning of MTL at home.

Key Programmes:
Mother Tongue Fortnight Activities & Cultural Camp The MTL Fortnight activities are conducted to create an immersive environment for the learning of MTL. During these weeks, activities are designed to provide platforms for students to actively learn MTL and the associated culture so as to experience MTL as ‘living language’. Such activities include cultural performance, hands-on craft activities, traditional games and food tasting. Students also participate in level competitions related to their respective language and culture. Students often participate in these competitions with excitement and would cheer for their fellow peers. These competitions have also been providing the platforms for students to showcase their hidden talents and to build their confidence level.

Extensive Reading Extensive reading is carried out in all levels every year to encourage students to read different types of story books for enjoyment and to develop their general reading skills. The team has developed differentiated book review templates for the different levels to capture their understanding of the book they have read. Character First stamps will be awarded to students who have met the set targets.

Conversational Chinese/Malay (CCM) Programme CCM is an enrichment programme for Primary 3 to Primary 5 students who are interested in learning Chinese / Malay language and culture, other than their own Mother Tongue subject. It aims to help students to learn to converse in daily activities and eventually allow them to pick up the language easily through increased social interaction with native speakers. The programme is funded by MOE and is optional. The CCM programme comprises three 20-hour modules (one Beginner Module and two Basic Modules). Upon completion of the Beginner Module, students will advance to Basic Module 1 in Primary 4 and Basic Module 2 in Primary 5. By the end of the Primary school education, the students would have covered 60 hours of CCM lessons to prepare them for more advanced modules in their Secondary schools.


• Students having hands-on experiential learning about the loom weaving during Mother Tongue Fortnight
• Students having hands-on experiential learning about ancient Chinese toys during Mother Tongue Fortnight

• Tamil Language students having fun at the P4 Cultural Camp, Mother Tongue Fortnight
• Students lining up to borrow books at a Library visit during a Malay Language lesson

• Students learning in an ICT-infused lesson for Tamil Language
• Students learning in a games-based lesson for Malay Language