The Ministry of Education Language Centre (
Abbreviation: MOELC) is a centralised
educational institution for students in
Singapore's education system to learn additional
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s. There are two campuses located in
Bishan Bishan most commonly refers to Bishan, Singapore, a residential town in Singapore's Central Region, and its associated places.
Bishan may also refer to:
Places Singapore
* Bishan, Singapore
** Bishan MRT station, a MRT interchange station along t ...
and
Newton, which are managed by the
Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
of Singapore. Students attend the institution on top of the existing school they are attending.
Its primary purpose is to offer
foreign language
A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...
courses to students that will generally be their third language, within an official grading scheme reported back to their schools. However, it also teaches the
Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...
as an institute where Malay can be learned as some schools do not have a Malay Department. In exemption cases, students can replace learning their mother tongue with a foreign language offered by the MOELC, as a second language is a requirement for all students in the Singapore education system.
Exemption is typically invoked if the student in question is returning from abroad and is not proficient in his or her mother tongue, or is an
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
whose mother tongue is not one of the three "official" ethnic language groups of Singapore – namely the
Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...
, the Chinese language or the
Indian languages.
Courses
The Bishan MOELC offers the French language, Arabic language, German language and the Japanese language while the Newton MOELC offers the French language, Spanish language and the Japanese language under the Foreign Language Programme. The Malay language is not included in both as it is generally considered a mother tongue. The Malay language courses have both a
Malay (Special Programme) and a Higher Malay track for different degrees of advancement in the language. Students of Higher Malay language are able to cede two points off their O-level score (a lower number is considered better in
total O-level scoring) as long as some other minimal requirements are fulfilled.
The main focus of the MOELC is at the secondary education level. Grading is examination-oriented. The formal goal of the MOELC is to have the students pass their
GCE 'O' Level
The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...
s for their respective languages, as the MOELC does not issue a diploma ''per se'' upon students' graduation from their respective courses. Qualifications received thus take in the form of an O-level certificate. For students taking a foreign language as their second language, these second language qualifications are necessary to enter most tertiary institutions in Singapore, due to the requirement for
bilingualism. Grades are reported quarterly to the students' respective schools, with the two Continual Assessments (each making up 15% of the year-end grade), the first Semestral Assessment (25%) and the Final Examination (45%) contributing to a student's final grade. In some schools which offer the
Integrated Programme
The Integrated Programme (IP) is a scheme that allows high-performing students in secondary schools in Singapore to skip the GCE Ordinary Level (O-Level) examination (typically taken by students at the end of their fourth or fifth year in secon ...
, students are even allowed to replace their lowest scoring subject's results with their Third Language's results. However, the subject being replaced cannot be one of the Promotions Criteria subjects (subjects you have to pass in order to proceed to the next level of education, for example, English). And of course, the Third Language score has to be higher than that of the lowest scoring subject
![MOELC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/MOELC.JPG)
The other main purpose of the Centre is language enrichment and provision of grades back to the students' respective schools. This is because as the students progress through secondary school and junior college, the workload of their other subjects causes many students to drop their third language course at MOELC. The years that have been taken go on record and these can be used as partial qualifications later on in life.
Depending on the language taken, students may also take several other foreign language examinations, such as the French
DELF/
DALF certification examinations and the
Japanese Language Proficiency Test
The , or JLPT, is a standardized criterion-referenced test to evaluate and certify Japanese language proficiency for non-native speakers, covering language knowledge, reading ability, and listening ability. The test is held twice a year in Japan a ...
. The focus on the additional examinations picks up for Junior College students, who take at least the
GCE 'A' Levels at the conclusion of their course. This is primarily for students who eventually intend to receive tertiary education overseas; the language medium of their courses will be their third language (a
national
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
or
official language
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
of the destination country).
Generally, Indian students whose mother tongues are neither
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
nor among the languages offered by their schools do not apply to the MOELC to take an Indian language. As the MOELC does not offer these, such students will have to find an alternative centre instead (see the
list of schools in Singapore
Singapore's public schools come under the purview of the Ministry of Education. Singapore has many primary schools and secondary schools, as well as junior colleges, centralised institutes, polytechnics and universities providing tertiary educ ...
).
From 2008 onwards,
Indonesian and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
are being offered as part of the Asian Languages programme, bringing the number of Third Languages offered by MOE from the original five to seven. The aim of the two new Third Languages is to facilitate future Singaporean engagement with Indonesia and to open up bridges into the Middle East, the latter being one of the world's fast-growing regions.
From January 2014, Spanish will be offered to Secondary 1 students as a third language, and to first-year Junior College students in 2018.
Exchange Programmes
Every year, there are opportunities for students to participate in immersion programmes to countries where the language is spoken natively, to better learn and appreciate the language.
History
The Bishan Language Centre opened in 1996. Previously, there was only one Language Centre, at Winstedt Road. Formerly, there were eight decentralised regional institutions that taught extra languages, with the decentralisation akin to that of the
Institute of Technical Education
The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) is a post-secondary education institution and statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Education in Singapore.
Established by the Ministry of Education, it was formerly known as Vocational ...
(ITE). The Ministry of Education decided to combine all the faculty and resources into one centralised building for greater efficiency in teaching students. The side effect of such centralisation is that there may be long travel times from some parts of the country on
Singaporean public transport, although the travelling time for one trip does not usually exceed more than fifty minutes. The building was recently renovated.
Admission and student cohort
Fees
The MOELC does not charge
tuition
Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spending (by governments and other public bo ...
fees, but students have to buy their own materials and
textbook
A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...
s. This cost varies among the languages taken. For instance, the cost of materials for the French course for the first year ranges around
S$90–100. After the first year, however, most of the materials are reused, including
dictionaries.
Entry Requirements
Entry requirements are mainly academics-based. In general, a student must have scored 8 or less in the
Primary School Leaving Examination
The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) ( Malay: ''Peperiksaan Tamat Sekolah Rendah'', Simplified Chinese: 小学离校考试 x''iǎoxué lí xiào kǎoshì'') is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of E ...
(PSLE) to be considered for entry into the French, Spanish, German and Japanese courses, and scored 24 or less to enter into the
Malay courses. These requirements can be lowered for second language exemption cases.
Thus, the bulk of the students are usually from elite secondary schools whose intake cohorts have a high mean PSLE score. However, a significant portion of the population comes from the
junior colleges, as well as students from secondary schools whose cohorts' mean PSLE scores are not as high as those of the elite secondary schools. There are no primary school students.
Officially, if a student is not a citizen or
permanent resident
Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with suc ...
in Singapore, he or she can only take Malay courses, although exceptions are common.
Entry requirements for Japanese and Higher Malay
As a strong grasp of
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, ...
s is needed to study the Japanese language (whose writing system includes
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
, or modified
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...
), only students who have previously taken the Chinese language as a PSLE subject are allowed to take the Japanese language course, with exceptions.
Higher Malay is a continuation of previous Malay knowledge from primary school, so only students who took Malay as a PSLE subject are eligible for Higher Malay. Non-Malay students, or students who did not take Malay as a PSLE subject, can take the Malay Special Programme.
Lesson times
Prior to 2009, classes at the MOELC took place in two sessions, one from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm, and one from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm. Examinations may take place either in the morning or the afternoon with variable timing. There are several hundred students per session on a particular day, and students attend two days a week, out of a possible five. This puts the total amount of admissions per year at several thousand.
With effect from 2009, Secondary One to Four students offering French, German and Japanese need only attend lessons at MOELC once a week. Each lesson lasts 3 hours 15 minutes, with a 15-minute break, in addition to a hypothetical 45 minutes of e-learning. Hence, similar to arrangements prior to 2009, 4 hours of instruction are administered weekly.
Students offering
Malay (Special Programme),
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Indonesian continued with the arrangements prior to 2009 until 7 February 2011. From 7 February 2011 onwards, these students will have lessons only once a week for 3 hours 15 minutes.
JC H1 and H2 students offering French, German and Japanese follow arrangements prior to 2009; they attend lessons twice a week, each lasting 2 hours.
The introduction of the hypothetical 45 minutes of weekly e-learning into the curricula of the Secondary One to Four students offering French, German and Japanese has led to the abolition of e-learning weeks, formerly held twice a year, from all other curricula, including those of the unaffected Arabic and Indonesian, as well as the JC H1 and H2 French, German and Japanese courses. The introduction of weekly e-learning has been through the use of an online e-learning portal. From 2018, the Student Learning Space has been the e-learning portal used. Prior to 2018, MConline was used. From April to June 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, lessons were solely conducted online, on the Student Learning Space and video-conferencing software.
Facilities
Bishan Campus
The MOELC (Bishan Campus) is located on Bishan Street 14 between the former
ITE Bishan building and the Bishan Stadium. Located north of the
Bishan Bus Interchange
The Bishan Bus Interchange is a bus interchange serving Bishan, Singapore. The interchange commenced passenger service as Bishan Bus Terminal in 1988, with Services 56 and 58. Located at Bishan Street 13, it is designed in a unique squarish conf ...
and the
Junction 8 Shopping Centre
Junction 8 (, stylised as JUNCTI8N) is a popular heartland shopping mall located in the centre of Bishan. It is located outside Bishan MRT station and Bishan Bus Interchange. The name of this shopping centre was derived from the old station num ...
, it is separated from them by Bishan Street 14 and a large field. Access to the
Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network occurs through
Bishan MRT station
Bishan MRT station is a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North South (NSL) and Circle (CCL) lines in Bishan, Singapore. Located along Bishan Road within the town centre area, it is integrated with the Junction 8 shopping ...
.
The Centre also has several IT labs, a multilingual library, and an auditorium that can be used for presentations, lectures and screenings of foreign language films. All classrooms have
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...
support.
Newton Campus
The MOELC (Newton Campus) is located on 136 Cairnhill Road. Access to the
Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network occurs through
Newton MRT station.
Discipline
Students attending classes at MOELC wear their school uniform. PE attire is not permitted.
Rules and regulations exist but, in general, MOELC itself does not mete out punishment. Students who commit significant offences, such as vandalism, fighting, smoking or defiance, are referred back to their own schools for disciplinary action.
Rules and regulations
, Ministry of Education Language Centre.
References
External links
Ministry of Education Language Centre learning website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry Of Education Language Centre
Buildings and structures in Bishan, Singapore
Queenstown, Singapore
Language schools in Singapore
Education in Central Region, Singapore