Any Updates As To When PSLE T-Scores Will Be Scrapped?

[nicnac]

My kids are not prefects, not in competitive sports/CCA/performing arts, non-uniform groups... So will they be out of the game? :scared:


Can I turn back the clock I want to make sure I choose the right CCA

[lee_yl]

Ikid:

Community service ? Do we want our young ones to do community service for a 'reward' - gain points?

Should we inculcate community service as something our young ones do with passion instead?
Leadership - Some mothers may go all ways to fight for a leadership role for their kids.
CCA - Rich parents have means to engage professional coaches to improve their children's skill and hence be selected to represent their school.
So ultimately we may still go back to square 1.
Remove DSA totally then.
Top schools can have quota placement, i.e. 25% base on PSLE score, 10% - affiliation, 25% sports, 30% special talent and balance 10% for appeal cases/other cases.

Community work? I recall watching a Korean drama where the mother was asking her son (in school uniform) to pose with an orphan holding a big bar of chocolate at an orphanage. After the photoshot, which I assume was to prepare for the son's portfolio, the mum went forward to snatch back the bar of chocolate. Please lah, don't link community work with reward system.

What if everyone is doing the same community work? Hmmm.... To stand out, I will fly my DD to Cambodia to help to refurbish some schools. Can one tell who is sincere and who is fake?


Outstanding CCA / leadership role? Make sure your CCA teacher is not someone who plays favourite.

Should the child blame his poor parents who did not groom him in a particular sport when he was 2yo?

Now everything (psle t-score) is transparent, parents are asking for something more subjective. Given the extremely competitive environment, any well-intended policies will soon be subverted and the pressure on the children continues to mount!

[jetsetter]

lee_yl:

Now I won't aim for 4 A* but I aim for 4 A1s. Any difference? If it's still about cohort ranking to get into one's choice of secondary schools, with or without the aggregate score, the competitive pressure will still be there.

I am keen to know how they differentiate children with high and low 4A1s when it comes to selecting top schools like RI. How MOE explain why one group of 4A1s gets selected and not the other group. If your neighbor's child scored 4A1s and got into RI/HCI but yours with 4A1s got posted to a 2nd tier secondary school, how many parents can swallow it? Will the selection process be less transparent?

Well, remember no one knew or bothered to know if our A* was a high one or low one either? It's the T-score that is making most parents stressful, so they will replace it with perhaps another form of L1R3 type of aggregate. And if you've some colour awards attained thru certain CCA, you might be rewarded with bonus points in the A1-F9 range, which could enable you to deduct from your L1R3 score to qualify for school of choice??

[quote]The article mentioned that to differentiate between students with the same grade, one possible way is to look at the leadership position in CCAs or other achievements like public-speaking, piano/violin/art achievements, community work etc. To me, these sound like adding more stress to a child preparing for PSLE? While preparing for PSLE, they must now make sure they prepare a thick portfolio on non-academic achievements.[/quote]I suppose factoring in MOE school-run/recognised CCA points into the final score is still, erhm, acceptable to me. After all, CCAs are administered by the school, carried out in school, and some are contributing to their school by bringing fame and glory to clinch titles for the school.

It's not like something that I need to pay extra for or sign up externally to have my DC professionally prepped, trained or tested/acredited by external centres or bodies for personal glory, for the sake of DSA via arts/sports. You know which ones

So if they really want to grade CCA or take CCA into account, so be it, but make sure the grading scheme is transparent and reasonable. Otherwise, there'll be another round of parents fighting for certain CCAs, followed by a second round of appealing if they failed to secure a choice CCA, and a third round of jostling for leadership positions, etc.

For parents who are in the lower income groups, esp. those who need double income to get by, they won't have the luxury of time to research KSP website, check out and register for renowned international competitions or tournaments, enrol/afford enrichment centres, shooting schools, tennis clubs or music conservatories to help their child acquire additional skills or awards relevant for DSA.

But if the playing field is levelled, i.e. every one can only leverage on school-recognised CCA to earn points for offsetting from final L1R3, then it's fairer you see.

[Melaka1986]

I have a little opinion… this could be one way to create more "Top" schools?


If there are 1000 boys with 4A*, without PSLE Tscore info, they can’t tell among them who are the top 400 to go RI. MOE could take the opportunity to assign the top 400 to 4 top schools, thus redistributing the top kids and creating more "Top" schools since a "top" school is combination of top kids + top teachers.

Over time, more schools will be "Top" schools and there will be reduced anxiety for kids and parents to get to ONE school.

[ngl2010]

Jetsetter, parents can always send for CCA tuition/enrichment e.g. those in sports. There are many coaches ready to coach children…

[superkiasudad]

We have not considered a 3rd possibility. Perhaps MOE would simply release banded grades, with the students choosing their first 6 school choices based on their grades but the final determinant of which school they are posted to are still their t-scores or rankings relative to their peers (which is not publicly available)?

[jetsetter]

ngl2010:

Jetsetter, parents can always send for CCA tuition/enrichment e.g. those in sports. There are many coaches ready to coach children...

Oh dear! That's really extreme! :faint:

I was thinking of maybe boy scouts, boys brigade, girl guides n UG that cannot be trained.

For CCA sports, I thought students are already trained by school coaches?

For performing arts, I believe there's no need to seek external training? The school trainers or music teachers will train them to read scores n play instruments.

So scary :yikes:

[MyPillow]

I know of quite a few with private tuition coach for

Badminton , table tennis , tennis , swim , guzheng !
Soccer clinic too - some got in via dsa.

[FantasyLandDreams]

jetsetter:

ngl2010:

Jetsetter, parents can always send for CCA tuition/enrichment e.g. those in sports. There are many coaches ready to coach children...

Oh dear! That's really extreme! :faint:

I was thinking of maybe boy scouts, boys brigade, girl guides n UG that cannot be trained.

For CCA sports, I thought students are already trained by school coaches?

For performing arts, I believe there's no need to seek external training? The school trainers or music teachers will train them to read scores n play instruments.

So scary :yikes:

JS, actually same for performing arts, a lot who is taking part in syf this year in my child's school are also learning under outside teachers and taking graded exams, be it for interest or dsa purpose. And just to add, my child's school is already not those famous for clinching syf gold. The ground is already not very 'levelled' now, cannot imagine if this thing kicked in, maybe really only left UG which cannot be trained. Nowadays a lot of things is like 'go to school to learn it the 2nd time', as tuition already taught them ahead 'the first time'. :siam:

[Sun_2010]

jetsetter:

ngl2010:

Jetsetter, parents can always send for CCA tuition/enrichment e.g. those in sports. There are many coaches ready to coach children...

Oh dear! That's really extreme! :faint:

I was thinking of maybe boy scouts, boys brigade, girl guides n UG that cannot be trained.

For CCA sports, I thought students are already trained by school coaches?

For performing arts, I believe there's no need to seek external training? The school trainers or music teachers will train them to read scores n play instruments.

So scary :yikes:

There is kiasu and then some more :scared:
JS, for a CCA that interests DS , individual coaching and group coaching is almost a norm.
A couple of parents asked me if I was interested in getting a expert coach from China during school hols , with 4-5 parents sharing cost his flight, boarding and his fees, with each child getting 8-10hr hot housing from the coach once in 3-4days. And here I was thinking couple of weeks of holiday camps ( 4 hrs per day) is already taking up too much time. Obviously I wasn't up to the competition. Beside :moneyflies: :moneyflies: I felt DS would go crazy.

Giving weight age to CCAs/ Leadership position/performing arts at primary school level will greatly disadvantage the lower income and uninformed parents. Far from leveling the play field, it will push the already lopsided representation in elite schools into schools solely with the well off kids.