SINGAPORE — With a need for more reading materials in mother tongue languages featuring local elements, the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism has launched a call for proposals for such books.

The books, aimed at children from Kindergarten 1 to Primary 4, will also have to be offered in increasing levels of difficulty. 

Announcing this on Tuesday (Jan 3), the fund said it “would like the content to be set in the Singapore context and feature local elements that will allow children to better relate to the story”. 

The fund’s programme director, Madam Cheryl Tan, said there was a lack of such reading books — both in stepped levels of difficulty, and in the local context — in mother tongue languages here. 

The reading books — targeted for both home and school usage — could also come with additional tools such as audio packs, and downloadable worksheets, she added.

Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, speaking on the sidelines of a school visit to Princess Elizabeth Primary School on Tuesday, said: “We hope to contextualise the language (for it) to come alive for the kids, into the everyday aspects of Singapore life. It could be culture, or food, or other things that are relevant to the kids, so that they will be interested.” 

Mother tongue teachers TODAY spoke to welcomed the move. Madam T. Poongkudi, a Tamil language teacher at the school, said such books will not only help students know more about local culture but also  improve their reading. This, in turn, will help improve their command of the language. 

Parties interested in the call for proposals for the reading books can submit their expressions of interest to the fund by Feb 3.

Separately, the fund will also support another 10 proposals to boost language learning, including a bilingual children’s television programme and a children’s content festival. 

This brings the total number of projects supported to 45, said the Education Ministry on Tuesday.

Commenting on the fund’s newly-accepted proposals, Mr Ng, who is also its chairman, said: “We are now exploring new frontiers with novel projects like a bilingual television programme and an online video series.
 
“We hope such new initiatives will provide more interesting and interactive experiences for our children’s learning of mother tongue languages.”

A 2013 recipient of the fund, Mr Raymond Tan, told TODAY that the fund helped his book project — an English-Mandarin bilingual book for four- to six-year-olds called The Wayang Kid  — to take off. 

“I don’t think we will be brave enough to develop the book without any support,” said the executive producer and director of Brainchild Pictures, adding that the books were sold out following their launch.