Month: September 2023

Bengali as a Mother Tongue Language in Singapore

Soon after completing the buffet at Singapore Mathematical Society event, I had to rush off to attend another annual prize giving ceremony organized by the Bengali School, BLLS.

There are two Bengali Schools in Singapore – BLLS and BLCF. My daughter, Deepa, a student of NUS High School, attends BLLS that operates every Saturday for 5 hours to teach only Bengali language.

Today she got 1st prize for the 7th year in a row since Class 1. It is not say she is very good in Bengali language. However, whatever she learnt could not have been possible had Singapore Govt. not facilitate taking Bengali (along with many other languages) as a Mother Tongue till 12th standard.

Singapore is possibly the only country (as far as I know) outside our native places where one can take Bengali as a mother tongue and it counts as a valid/official subject.

Thank you Singapore for helping the small linguistic groups keeping alive their languages.

Thank you all teachers and others involved in running the school, who either take a token salary or volunteer for their love for the language.

SMPF 2023

Today we attended the Annual Prize Presentation Ceremony 2023 by Singapore Mathematical Society at the NUS High School Auditorium.

Students of Singapore who did well in Singapore Mathematics Projects Festival and Olympiads were awarded. It was attended by many distinguished guests including Professors from Department of Statistics and Data Science (including its Head of Department) at NUS, Department of Mathematics at NUS and other institutes.

My son, Pranjal, got a gold award in Singapore Mathematics Projects Festival (Junior Section). It is one of the two gold awards in this category in Singapore in 2023.

I was amazed at the quantity and quality of the projects. In the Math Olympiad too, Singapore is punching well above its weight, ranking 12th as a country this year.

Thank you all – Singapore Mathematical Society, Ministry of Education, as well as all teachers and mentors involved in training the young students and organizing the events.

Soon after completing the buffet, I had to rush off to attend another annual prize giving ceremony by the Bengali School, BLLS.