The Singapore Gujarati School Limited joined the Board so that it could project a joint voice with the other NTIL mother tongues as well as to learn from their experience.

On 23rd January 2003 a joint body was registered called the Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages. It represented all the languages in the NTIL program. The institutions that were its members on its inception where:-

  1. Bangla Language and Literary Society (Singapore) (1 Nominee)
  2. Bangladesh Language and Cultural Foundation (1 Nominee)
  3. Singapore Gujarati School Limited (2 Nominee)
  4. DAV Hindi School (1 Nominee)
  5. Hindi Society (Singapore) (1 Nominee)
  6. Singapore Sikh Education Foundation (2 Nominee)
  7. Urdu Development Society (Singapore) (2 Nominee)

Five (5) suitably qualified Educationists, one from each Language to nominated, by the Board.

The main objectives of the Board were:

  1. To oversee the standardise the setting of examination papers on Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu languages for primary, secondary and pre-university level examinations.
  2. To ensure that all the examinations for the Non-Tamil Indian Languages (NTIL) are carried out professionally.
  3. To oversee and standardise the marking of the NTIL papers.
  4. To advise all members organisations on matters pertaining to the teaching, review and development of the language curriculum.
  5. To undertake any other activities / programmes to achieve the above and related objectives.

The membership subscription per year is $500.00, further each of the eight (8) institutions collected $20.00 examination fee, of which $10.00 was given to the Board to cover the cost of setting, translating, typing and moderation of the SA1 & SA2 papers.

Recognition of NTIL marks and Grant from Ministry Of Education

On 7th March 2007 it was announced by Ministry of Education that:

  • It will also be working together with BTTSAL to affect the necessary processes to facilitate the recognition of NTIL grades for students’ level-to-level progression within school, before the students take the national examinations at the milestone years. Once these processes are in place, MOE will also allow students to use NTIL grades to count towards their eligibility for Edusave awards such as the Good Progress Award and Edusave scholarship.
  • To support these community groups in keeping their mother tongues and cultures alive, MOE will provide funding support for the instruction of NTILs from 2008. MOE will provide them with a total grant of about $1.5 million each year to support the learning of the NTILs.