Speaking in his first National Day Rally speech on 15 August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien said Singapore’s education system was set for more reforms in the years ahead, particularly for the primary and secondary education．Read the summary of his thoughts on education below．
For a start, the Government is prepared to send and additional 3,000 teachers to Singapore schools, cut the courses of study even further and change the way the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is taught．But, for the changes to be successful, parents need to help．
Singapore has a devoted group of teachers and principals and quite a few of them are outstanding, but the Republic’s schools can be even better．To help the schools make a jump in quality, the Government plans that within the next 6 years, it will send 1,000 more teachers to primary schools, 1,400 to secondary schools and 550 more to junior colleges．Each school would decide how to use its extra teachers．Some may want to make classes smaller so students get more individual attentions while others may have new teachers assist more senior teachers, but the overall goal is to give teachers the time and space to come up with ways to bring out the best in their students．
More teachers must not mean more homework, however．In fact, the Prime Minister wants to see the courses cut down so that there is less pressure on the students．Good grades are important but they should not be the only goal students have．PM Lee is convinced that “we must teach less so that our children can learn more．”
Another change will be in the teaching of the mother tongue so that students can become more fluent．The key is to teach Chinese as a living language not just an academic subject like Latin．Therefore, the focus should be on speaking and reading the language．To do this, there must be an environment outside the classroom that is contributing to strengthening the Chinese lessons．
小题1:The text is mainly about in Singapore．
A．the education reform
B．adding more teachers
C．the mother tongue
D．ways of teaching小题2:The general goal of using extra teachers is to ．
A．make classes smaller
B．assist more senior teachers
C．teach more
D．help teachers improve teaching quality小题3:PM Lee holds that the students should ．
A．do more homework
B．give up higher grades
C．study more courses
D．be given more time to learn more小题4:The key to teaching Chinese well is to ．
A．make it academic
B．have a creative environment
C．give more Chinese lessons
D．encourage speaking and reading a lot
