Rubaba Islam Sabed is the Principal of Bangladesh Language & Cultural Foundation Bangla School since 2001.

Her love and dedication towards the development of Mother Tongue is commendable. The students of her organisation perform wonderfully in the National Examinations. She finds immense happiness in nurturing her students and teachers on a regular basis. She, not only guides them academically but also constantly reminds them to keep in touch with their roots. Her students are very much involved with performing arts besides their academic curriculum. She is a disciplinarian and she makes sure that all the guidelines and directives given by the Board and MOE are implemented on time and without fail.

Rubaba is very proud of her Bangla school, her teachers, her students and her entire BLCF team.

Mr Zillur Rahman Siddiqui is very proud of the Bangla Language and Literary Society (BLLS). He considers himself very lucky to be part of the BLLS team. He is very grateful to the BTTSAL and the BTTSAL team for always supporting the BLLS to reach out to their students through various educational programmes. He has always believed from the bottom of his heart that all the volunteers at BLLS can help their society to achieve its mission through social work. We at BLLS, are grateful to BTTSAL and MOE for providing an advanced platform for our children to learn their mother tongue language. He firmly believes that Language is one of the most important tools for our Generation.

Shri Om Prakash Rai was born in Singapore on the 1st of January 1939.O P Rai ji began his life long career in the Singapore Education Service in 1959. His career in the service, saw him rise from teacher of History, Literature and English, to Head of Department of Humanities, to Principal. He retired in 1998, effectively completing 40 years in the service.

In parallel with his work for the Arya Samaj, O P Rai ji has played a crucial role in the development of Hindi in Singapore. He took on the full-time role of Principal of DAV Hindi School in 1999, a positon which continues till today.

Alongside, his welfare and educational activities for the Indian community in Singapore, O P Rai ji has also been recognised for his work in National bodies. He was part of the Citizen’s Consultative Committee (CCC) at Kampong Kapor and later Jalan Besar for two decades, and was awarded a National Award for his long and distinguished service to the nation. His immense contribution to the nation was matched by his great love for Chess, and here too he distinguished himself, not only as a Chess administrator but an avid player who once represented the Singapore team in Indonesia. He remains a faithful chess player to date, albeit playing a global field of players on the internet.

Mr Rabindra Pandey is a banker with more than 30 years broad Global Markets experience covering Compliance, Business Management, Operational Risk / Project Management, Business Integration and ALM Trading, roles in a number of leading Banks in Singapore.

Despite his busy schedule, he has been volunteering with the Hindi Society (Singapore) for more than 20 years in various roles and is passionate about Hindi language education. He has also been a Community Group representative on Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages (BTTSAL) council since 2017.

The Society is a premier institution that has seen tremendous growth over the last 32 years since its inception. The challenges faced by the local Hindi-speaking students were highlighted to the government and an appeal for Hindi to be offered as a second language in the local schools was made. Its efforts were rewarded when the Ministry of Education (MOE) approved the taking of Non-Tamil Indian languages (NTILs), Hindi being one of them, as a second language at 'GCE O' Levels (1989), "GCE A" levels (1991) and PSLE (1993).

Apart from teaching Hindi, the Society provides a varied and holistic approach to second language education that extends to organising various competitions and celebrating a variety of cultural events and festivals. These cater to the educational and cultural development of the students. The Society envisions in becoming a regional leader in teaching and promoting Hindi.

Mdm Mita Shah grew up in Singapore where as a student she studied Gujarati as a 3rd Language for her O & A Levels at the Singapore Gujarati School. It was through the study of the language that she identified with her roots though she had never visited India till she was 17. As such she had a passion for the language and the culture.

With the implementation of the NTIL policy she joined the “Gujarati Language Review Committee” as she was both an educationist and a parent. She joined the team and was involved in reorganising the school to meet the needs of the community. The first few years were spent drawing up a curriculum and training teachers as per MOE standards. When BTTSAL was formed in the early years, she represented Gujarati School as the language specialist. When BTTSAL was re-organised, she was asked to represent Gujarati School in the BTTSAL board. Her hope is that more parents understand the importance of teaching their Mother Tongue and support their school vision of 'Preserving Culture through Language'.

Being an educationist and an administrator in the mainstream school, Mdm Gurdial Kaur was asked to join the Punjabi Language education programme from the onset in 1989/1990. Her perspective of this Programme is directly informed by being the Centre Principal at Bedok Centre for 23 years, and then being the Deputy Chair and Chairperson of the SSEF to date. The programme received a strong boost following the setting up of BTTSAL in 2003 and the standardisation of the NTIL programme and teaching materials even though the SSEF continued to produce its own supplementary instructional materials to enhance the quality of Punjabi education in Singapore. It has been one of her most satisfying and fulfilling life-long journeys as an educationist in Singapore.

Mr Wasim Abdul Majeed is the Managing Director of Esmail and Ahmed Brothers (1922) Pte Ltd. During his free time he involves himself in various communities, such as being the President & Council Member of Muslim in Trust Fund Association. He is also Chairman of Darul Ihsan Orphanages & also part of the Member Managing Board of Masjid Mydin. He decided to assist the Urdu Society as a volunteer when his children started attending Urdu School. Later, he was invited to become the member of UDSS. Currently, he is the Community Group Representative of UDSS in BTTSAL.