Extend the scope and emphasis of the DLP

THE letter “Need to master English” ( The Star, Aug 30) is proof of the unceasing and relentless appeal for a more effective and sustainable emphasis on the teaching and learning of English in our schools.

Our newly-minted Education Minister has not said a word about the Dual Language Programme and has only mentioned the Highly Immersive Programme (HIP) for English in one of his recent speeches. He must be made aware of the existence of this programme since 2016 because we want to make sure that DLP will not be left by the wayside with the new government in place.

I wish to highlight that the DLP replaced the teaching and learning of Maths and English policy (or PPSMI as it was popularly called) although it is an optional programme. All private schools have taken this option as it is definitely bearing fruit in our schools.

In my school which started in 2017, we are seeing tremendous progress simply because there is an environment to use English more widely. We have students who switched from Chinese primary schools when we opened our doors in January 2017. One hundred and fifty-four students from the Mandarin stream came in with minimal skills in English and we had to use Mandarin to communicate with them at first.

Today, one and a half years down the line, we are glad that our students achieved 100% passes in their recent trial examination for the UPSR English Paper 013 and 014. We are seeing the advantages of the DLP and the results. We therefore call for greater emphasis on this programme and for it to be offered more widely in all schools under the Education Ministry.