Lee Kuan Yew launches fund, book to encourage bilingualism
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/lee-kuan-yew-launches-fund--book-to-encourage-bilingualism.html
Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew launched on Monday a fund to help kids learn more than one language early on.
He also released “My Lifelong Challenge: Singapre’s Bilingual Journey”, which tells of the former Prime Minister’s lifelong goal to revamp Singaporeans’ spoken languages from a variety dialects to English and a mother tongue, reported The Straits Times (ST).
Expressing hope that the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism would exceed S$100 million,
Lee personally donated S$10 million, in addition to the proceeds that would be collected from the sale of 200 autographed copies of the book, selling for at least S$10,000 each.
Education Minister Heng Swee Keat announced that the government would match donations dollar for dollar, up to a maximum of S$50 million, and that the ministry will be looking at the best ways to use the money to help develop bilingualism in pre-schoolers, ST wrote.
When Lee became Prime Minister in 1959, he chose English as Singapore’s main language – even though not many could speak it – as laws and official records were already in that language due to British rule. He also felt that it was a language that could level the playing field.