<P> In 2007, in a bid to enhance the linguistic experience of students, the Ministry of Education strongly encouraged schools to offer Conversational Malay and Chinese to those who do not take either of these languages as their Mother Tongue . By providing the schools with the resources needed to implement the programme, the Ministry of Education has succeeded in significantly increasing the number of participating schools . More importantly, the programme was also well received by students . </P> <P> The teaching of Mother Tongue (especially Mandarin) in schools has encountered challenges due to more Singaporeans speaking and using English at home . The declining standards and command of Mandarin amongst younger generations of Chinese Singaporeans continue to be of concern to the older generations of Chinese Singaporeans, as they perceive it to be an erosion of Chinese culture and heritage . This concern has led to the establishment the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL) by the government on November 2009 . The SCCL's stated purpose is to enhance the effectiveness of teaching Mandarin as a second language in a bilingual environment as well as to meet the learning needs of students from non-Mandarin speaking homes . </P> <P> Despite government efforts to promote Mandarin through the Speak Mandarin Campaign, the propagation of Mandarin and Chinese culture amongst Chinese Singaporeans continues to be a challenge because Mandarin faces stiff competition from the strong presence of English . However, this situation is not only limited to Mandarin, but also Malay and Tamil, where rising statistics show that English is progressively taking over as home language of Singaporeans . </P> <P> With the influx of foreigners, the population of non-English speaking foreigners in Singapore offers new challenges to the concept of language proficiency in the country . Foreigners in Singapore constitute 36% of the population and they dominate 50% of Singapore's service sectors . Thus, it is not uncommon to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English, especially those who do not use English regularly . In response to this situation, the Straits Times reported that from July 2010, foreigners working in service sectors would have to pass an English test before they can obtain their work permits . </P>

South indian language has offical status in singapore