The reforms will shift the focus of teaching to listening, speaking and reading skills, rather than writing, education minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in a parliamentary speech released late Friday, Nov 26.

"The reduced emphasis on writing... will free up space in the curriculum to develop greater confidence and fluency in communication, and in reading materials that students find engaging," he said, wrapping up a debate before the reforms were approved by members of parliament.

Chinese-language classes are regarded as a daunting task by many students in largely ethnic Chinese but predominantly English-speaking Singapore, a former British colony and one of the leading foreign investors in China.

Shanmugaratnam said his ministry was also going to test an electronic handheld device that could be used to help students with the writing of Chinese characters during national examinations by 2007.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in the debate that the reforms laid out realistic goals to boost bilingualism in Singapore, as most people cannot master two languages equally well, the Straits Times reported Saturday.

However, Shanmugaratnam reminded ministers in his closing speech that the changes were not meant to make the learning of Chinese easier, just more relevant.

"Our objective is not to make learning unchallenging. The crux of the changes to the Chinese language curriculum is to engage students in learning the language in a way they find relevant to their lives," he said.

The government has repeatedly emphasised the need for greater fluency in Chinese despite the widespread use of English, citing the importance of the Chinese market and the need to maintain a sense of cultural identity.

While English is the medium of instruction in schools, students also have to study a "mother tongue" such as Chinese, Malay or Tamil. Ethnic Malays and Tamil Indians constitute the main minorities in Singapore.

Lee said that the government "did not believe that if Singapore became a purely English-speaking society, we would have the collective instincts, the resilience and cohesion to survive as a nation," the Straits Times reported.

"We need to work harder to ensure that the next generation retains a sense of self and cultural identity," he added during the debate.

In response, several ethnic Malay and Indian MPs called for similar reforms in the teaching of Malay and Tamil, which are facing decreasing popularity among the more highly educated members of the two communities, the newspaper said.

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