Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism supports 5 more projects

SINGAPORE — Five more projects aimed at promoting language learning will receive funds from the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said the fund is sponsoring another five proposals in English language and mother tongue languages to promote bilingualism among pre-school children.

The five proposals are from Robot Playground Media, Singapore Press Holdings (Tamil Murasu), Brainchild Pictures, YMCA of Singapore and Saintly Education Centre.

The MOE said the funding provided will go towards developing reading resources, nursery rhymes, mobile applications, and movie sets in the local context and sponsorship of awards, to promote the love for languages.

This brings the total number of proposals supported by the fund to 22.

“The fund is seeing good progress in its efforts to encourage bilingual teaching and learning at the pre-school level,” said Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat, who is also the chairman of the board of the fund.

“We have added more teaching and learning resources for use in pre-school centres and at home,” Mr Heng said. “The fund will continue to support proposals that create a positive impact in engaging children in language teaching and learning.”

One of the recipients, Mr Ervin Han, managing director of Robot Playground Media, said: “We are delighted to receive the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism’s support to develop new interactive formats of storytelling that not only encourage children to read, but also enhance their appreciation of the different cultures in our community.”

So far, the fund has received over 150 proposals.

The ministry said it is encouraged by the positive response.

The fund is inviting the public to submit proposals to promote bilingualism among children at the pre-school level.

All proposals must reach the Education Ministry by June 2.

The proposals will be evaluated and applicants will be notified of the outcome in the fourth quarter of this year. CHANNEL NEWSASIA