What is happening to chinese in Singapore?

What is happening to chinese in Singapore?

I was queuing up at Popular to buy something just now. And right beside the queue were assesment books for kindergarden kids. A mother was flipping through the pages of an english assesment and testing her kid's knowledge. Then next up was maths. The kid is pretty interested with the assesment books and so, the mother decided to them for her kid.

Just before the mother was about to leave that section, the kid picked a chinese book and asked, "Mummy, what about the chinese assesment?". The reply was shocking.

"No. I don't want to buy chinese to you. No point teaching you chinese because it is not going to be important."

Oh my! I can't believe a mother telling that to her kid, a child who shows interest and no sign of procrastination towars chinese. And if the mother thinks that chinese is not important, she should not have told the 5 years old kid about what she thinks. Why just make the kid shut off from chinese instead of giving the kid a chance to explore into the world of chinese?

It makes me wonder...

How many Singaporean parents are actually doing that to their kids? How many would actually try to cultivate interest towards chinese into their kids? Why have chinese became so unimportant in the eyes of many Singaporeans?

Orange