SINGAPORE - He listened to the opening speeches at the official launch of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, and then he remarked: "It is too Chinese an atmosphere."

This seemed to sum up Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's message last night of what went wrong in the early years of education policy, which put generations of student off the Chinese language - and what needs to be done right to engage them today.

Giving a blunt assessment of Singapore's bilingual policy, he said: "A language is first listened to, heard, then spoken. It's not read or written. That follows later.

"We started the wrong way. We insisted on ting xie (listening), mo xie (dictation) - madness! We had teachers who were teaching in completely Chinese schools. And they did not want to use any English to teach English-speaking children Chinese, and that turned them off completely."

He also admitted that he was wrong to insist on bilingualism in the early years. "At first I thought, you can master two languages. Maybe different intelligence, you master it at different levels."

But his conclusions after over 40 years are different. Reiterating a point he has since made several times, he said: "Nobody can master two languages at the same level. If you can, you're deceiving yourself."

He added: "Successive generations of students paid a heavy price, because of my ignorance, by my insistence on bilingualism. And I wasn't helped by the ministry officials, because there were two groups, one English speaking, one Chinese teaching."

Mr Lee also said that while he started wrong, "I put it right, and it's not completely right but I will get it right if I live long enough".

For instance, he has told education officials to "cut out" writing and allow students to use hanyu pinyin on the computers.

On how to get today's students from English-speaking homes to take a liking to Mandarin, he said: "Use IT, use drama, use every possible method to capture the interest of the children."

"Go at a level" the students can attain, he urged, and use computer software to help them understand the language. "It doesn't matter what level they reach, they will like the language, it's fun, and later on in life they'll use it."

Among the four collaboration agreements the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language signed yesterday, was one with the Media Development Authority to explore ways to use information and communication technology to teach Mandarin.

The centre, which will offer teachers a part time bachelor's or master's degree and will train Chinese language preschool teachers, also signed agreements with SIM University, University of Hong Kong and NTUC First Campus.

While the implementation of the bilingual policy may have started off on the wrong foot, it still affords students "extra market value", said Mr Lee, pointing out that Singapore students are preferred by multinational companies because they can speak Mandarin.