Offer Higher Mother Tongue to all groups of pupils

I agree that pupils should be credited for consistent effort put into their Higher Mother Tongue subject (“Bonus points for Higher Mother Tongue students justified”; Feb 4).

It is not an easy subject to cope with owing to its taxing nature. Those who take it must spend more time and effort studying than those who do not.

It is unfair for the Ministry of Education to award two bonus points, however, considering that Higher Mother Tongue is not made available to all groups of pupils, despite some of them being linguistically inclined.

For example, although the ministry recognises non-Tamil Indian languages, Higher Mother Tongue is offered only to those who take Chinese, Malay or Tamil as their second language, giving them an unfair advantage.

As a student taking a non-Tamil Indian language, I put in equivalent amounts of effort into my second language.

It will still be an extra subject for me to take at junior college level, however, as there is no Higher Mother Tongue option.

Singapore is multiracial, so the two-point merit would only be completely fair if it is offered to all students who put in years of effort into their language subjects.