A politician from Singapore argues for teaching Tamil to kids. This is the reason

Singapore’s fourth official language, Tamil, is one that Minister Indranee Rajah has emphasized is important for youngsters to learn. “It is imperative that we provide our kids with continuous exposure to the Tamil language,” she said. According to Rajah, a minister in the Singaporean government of Indian descent, Tamil serves as a “passport” that unites all Tamil people. She said that studying languages is not the only way to learn it. “You must use it,” she continued.

The Friday weekly Tabla cited Rajah as saying, “We can keep the language alive as long as they are hearing, listening, and using it from a young .” This might be via print, social media, or television.

For the last eighteen years, the Tamil Language Council in Singapore (TLC) has been holding the language festival in an effort to preserve the rich heritage of the Tamil language. This year’s event was inaugurated last Saturday by Singapore’s Minister, Indranee Rajah.

This year’s TLC, with 47 programs centered on the topic of “capabilities,” will take place from March 30 to April 28. TLC chairwoman S Manogaran said, “This year’s theme was chosen to inspire the creation of innovative programs while harnessing our collective strengths.”

The young are in charge of organizing about 65% of the events during the Tamil language festival. According to Tabla, Manogaran said, “Many of our youths today are finding a new purpose in learning and using Tamil; many of the programs are targeted towards them.”

The mother tongue—Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and other major Indian languages—as well as Tamil, Malay, and Chinese (Mandarin) are all encouraged as second languages in Singaporean classrooms.

S Iswaran, a former cabinet minister of Singapore, emphasized the government’s resolve to maintain Tamil as an official language. Iswaran made these comments in an interview that was included in the South Indian community book “The Tamil Community and the Making of Modern Singapore.” The government supports Tamil language usage in parliament and as a topic in schools alongside English, Chinese, and Malay, the former minister said in his speech.