Singapore is home to about 500,000 Tamil people. Tamil Language is one of the four official languages in Singapore. An estimation of about 3.2% percent of the total population in Singapore speaks Tamil at home, while about 5% is literate in Tamil language. Almost all official documents printed in Singapore are translated and distributed in Tamil as well as three other national languages. In 1956, the Singapore government decided to adopt a trilingual policy. Students were taught English, a second language, as well as Malay as a third language. Today the emphasis has shifted to bilingualism, where the medium of instruction is English with the mother-tongue as a second language, while the third language is optional.