A little history on the Programme....

Younger than the German Reunification, but just as promising - the Language Elective Programme enables students to take German as an A-level subject in NJC.

In 1992, it was decided by the government, through the Ministry of Education, to establish A-level examinations in junior Colleges for languages which may seem, from a local point of view, to be exotic and foreign, but which have great potential for the future of Singapore. These languages are German, French and Japanese, which are taught at A level at separate junior colleges: Japanese at Raffles junior College, French at Victoria Junior College and German at National Junior College, the first junior college in Singapore.

In order to guarantee the best results, qualified teachers are specially chosen and recruited from the respective countries, to conduct intensive and effective language classes. As the students only spend 2 years in junior colleges before their final examinations (equivalent to the German "Abitur"), qualifying students have studied these languages beforehand. This foundation has the advantage of facilitating better understanding and allows greater ease in grasping higher level linguistic skills when these students enter junior college. To provide this grounding, the Ministry of Education Language Centre was established. Here foreign teachers work and co-operate with local teachers, holding lessons in the evenings as an extension of the normal school curriculum. The main objective of these lessons is to bring the students after 4 years to a standard which is equivalent to the German "Mittlere Reife".

The answer can be found in an obviously far sighted strategy by the Singaporean government and the Ministry of Education. Firstly, the students at Junior Colleges are Singapore's elite students and tomorrow's future leaders.

Secondly, Germany is still regarded as one of the world's leading industrial nations, playing an important role in Europe, its markets and its technology. Third, the authorities realise that knowledge of foreign language not only eases communication, but can also foster better understanding between cultures.

This is important not only in political and economic negotiations but also in personal affairs. Subsequently, studying at a university in Germany is a realistic and desirable option for many of these students: not only are they subsidized, but educational standards subjects as engineering, economics or medicine at certain German universities rank among the best in the world.