THE Education Ministry is casting its net wider for Mother Tongue language teachers - even before they graduate from school.

It is offering junior college students a taste of teaching and a chance to shadow expert teachers, in a bid to get them hooked on teaching.

There are now about 6,000 teachers who teach the Mother Tongue languages in schools. Of these, 4,000 teach Chinese, 1,200 Malay and 600 Tamil.

But all the same, he said that 6,000 is not an optimum figure and the Ministry wants to have a bigger and better pool of teachers.

It is targetting students taking Mother Tongue Language at the H2 level at the A levels, especially those in the language elective programmes (LEP).

Each year, about 250 sign up for the Chinese LEP, and 50 the Malay LEP.

'If we get the best talent to teach our students in future, there's a better chance for us to engage them in more interesting, creative and maybe more complicated pedagogies,' said Mr Masagos.

The Ministry also wants to raise the quality of Mother Tongue Language teachers by increasing the number of 'Master Teachers', a pinnacle position for those who wish to focus on teaching.

Master Teachers are experts in their subjects who coach other teachers.

So far, only seven Chinese and one Malay language teachers have been promoted to this position. The long-term goal is to have 1 per cent of Mother Tongue Language teachers become 'masters'.

Besides this, teachers will have more opportunities to go for overseas immersions or work-experience stints.

Those teaching Malay or Tamil will also find it easier to upgrade themselves.

From next year, Malay Language can enrol for a degree course on the subject at UniSIM.

Tamil Language teachers also stand to gain, as they will no longer be required to teach for two years before they can sign up for UniSIM's degree course in Tamil Language.