The establishment of Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL) was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 6 September 2008, and was opened by Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on 17 November 2009. The objective of SCCL is to enhance the effectiveness of teaching Chinese as a second language in a bilingual environment and to meet the learning needs of students from non-Mandarin speaking homes. Through the provision of quality training, SCCL hopes to enhance the teaching literacy, competency and professionalism of Chinese language teachers. It further strives to promote the development of Chinese culture and language in Singapore. SCCL also focuses on researching innovative teaching and learning strategies, and through the promotion of effective Chinese language pedagogy in a bilingual environment, hopes to develop unique and effective teaching methods to strengthen the position of SCCL as the regional teaching and research centre for Chinese as a second language.