华文补习风席卷至小学前 新加坡家长为何焦虑？

“我在理工学院读的是中文系...但儿子却对我说‘妈咪可以请你说英文吗？’” 这是林锦霞在儿子四岁时，把他送去上华文补习的最大因素。

像她这样在幼龄阶段就送孩子上华文补习的父母并不是个例。2013年创办的格乐悟华文教育中心，课程面向1岁至16岁的孩子，在大约1300名学生中，七成是小三前的低学龄孩童。

《联合早报》浏览了本地各大华文补习中心网站，几乎所有都为三至六岁的幼儿开办学龄前课程。有中心甚至为六七个月的孩子开设有家长陪同的游戏班，希望通过趣味方式，从小培养孩子对学习华文的兴趣。

这场卷向学龄前的华文补习风，反映出新加坡家长在华文教育上面临的哪些挣扎？点击视频看看家长“外包”华文的心声。

“I studied in the Chinese department at a polytechnic… but my son said to me, ‘Mummy, can you please speak English?’” This was the main reason Lin Jinxia decided to send her son for Chinese tuition when he was four years old.

Parents like her who enroll their children in Chinese tuition at a very young age are not uncommon. Founded in 2013, Glow Chinese Education Centre offers courses for children aged 1 to 16. Of its roughly 1,300 students, 70% are in the lower primary levels or below Primary Three.

Lianhe Zaobao reviewed the websites of major Chinese tuition centres in Singapore and found that almost all of them offer preschool programmes for children aged three to six. Some centres even run parent-accompanied playgroups for babies as young as six or seven months old, hoping to cultivate children’s interest in learning Chinese from an early age through fun activities.

This wave of Chinese tuition spreading to the preschool years reflects the struggles Singaporean parents face in Chinese language education. Click on the video to hear parents share why they are “outsourcing” their children’s Chinese learning.

Read the original article here. 

Source: Lianhe Zaobao © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.