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

[jetsetter]

XYZ1:

sushi88:

[quote=\"XYZ1\"] I think we cannot deny that cream of crop always have plenty of opportunities as compared to the \"average guy\".

I think this is an interesting point to pick out for discussion for more specifics instead of talking generally to understand what is this gap that everyone is so concerned with between the cream and the average guy.

Do you mean by design of any sort of competition of opportunities, since the best people win, so only the cream of the crop will get it?

If so, when late bloomers bloom due to timing of development, why would they not be able to compete in such competition of opportunities? If not, meaning I understand you wrongly, then can you give more concrete examples for my understanding?

Meanwhile, there are several paths MOE has offered for late bloomers to immerse themselves until they are ready to compete...eg, poly and ITE has been a very good ground to groom many who make it excellently in the uni later. So I am trying to understand where is the short-change of opportunities if meritocracy is the guiding principle behind all these?

I'm not sure if I understand u as well .....but when I say cream of crop always have more opportunities, don't they?

1) They can have access to DSA schools like NUSH/SST...
2) They get trained by schools (not funded by parents) for all sorts of maths/science/language competitions, participates in exchange programmes, some of these are national level programmes
3) If a top guy decides that he wants to be a REAL big fish in a small pond, he even has a chance to choose any lower COP sec sch he wants...

all these choices are available simply bcos he's at the tip of the pyramid.

For ave guy....just bcos u are T-score 230-240....what doors do this open to you?

Yes we still hv poly/ITE route....all roads lead to Rome nowadays anyway, some faster routes, some longer routes. However, what I've asked is that the mass middle tier, can MOE do more for them? Can we help the late bloomers in sec school or just let them bloom late by themselves (maybe some bloom only at 18, some at 20, some even later, some never :nailbite: )

That's all I'm asking.....not wanting to take away resources from the top talent....but how abt
giving our middle tier kids more confidence and guidance in their education journey starting at
sec school level?

In what way do we help our middle tier kids?
- teacher-student ratio improvement?
- make teaching slightly different to cater to students' learning abilities
- hv niche programmes in diff middle tier sec schools (aviation program in hillgrove is a good eg)

Is this making the systems less meritocratic? In my opinion, No.[/quote]I agree with you the new scoring system will benefit late bloomers, middle tier and the average guy, because the Super Excellent (top 3-5% or whatever) will take of themselves, continue to strive and stay competitive, and their future will be well-taken care of by DSA Acad, GEP or SST/SOTA avenues.

But how do this bunch of Super Excellent emerge as cream of the crop in the first place?

The competition must start from P1 or even K1/2, when the vast majority of the cohort will frantically take multiple enrichment/tuition to give a stab at squeezing into this Super Excellent group, because no one wants to be in that Average Guy group who might face the imminent fate of computerised balloting in P6?

Looks like it's still gonna be very stressful in lower primary, even after the revamp.

Oh but wait, the new scoring system will ensure late bloomers/Average Guy catch up when they are eventually sorted into larger bands and distributed to top schools that early bloomers got an earlier foothold in.

Happy ending indeed. :rahrah:

[XYZ1]

zbear:

For ave guy....just bcos u are T-score
Just being curious, if you think mid tier Sec School students should be given more help, what about the low tier students - Normal Stream etc? Don't they need help too?

:?

Well...average tier or lower tier....just hope the govt do not give up on the rest in extreme pursuit of meritocracy....as iRabbit said, I feel most for the mass middle group bcos my kid is in that range, so I can better represent that group.

Sometimes, I feel like if my kid is average, then it is up to how much resources I have to help him myself.....so just venting a little.

[zbear]

XYZ1:

Well...average tier or lower tier....just hope the govt do not give up on the rest in extreme pursuit of meritocracy....as iRabbit said, I feel most for the mass middle group bcos my kid is in that range, so I can better represent that group.

Sometimes, I feel like if my kid is average, then it is up to how much resources I have to help him myself.....so just venting a little.

No worries. My DS is also from the mid tier group, just have to make the best of whatever is available. There are also opportunities but you have to search n work hard for them, be more proactive n yes parents resources will still be the best to help our kids.

Cheers!!!!

[lee_yl]

As the implementation details are not known yet, it may be premature to assume that the changes will benefit the mid tier group.

If the implementation is not well-crafted, who knows, the top tier families and students would still come out ahead.

[jetsetter]

lee_yl:

As the implementation details are not known yet, it may be premature to assume that the changes will benefit the mid tier group.

If the implementation is not well-crafted, who knows, the top tier families and students would still come out ahead.

From the scant details gleaned from NCM's COS speech, in addition to parliamentary suggestions (& underlying political rhetoric) made by MPs thus far that he said his ministry would consider carefully, it'd appear that they're moving towards this broad direction.

The prudent thing to do is to let affected parents have a snapshot of the \"scoring template\" 2-3 mths later to gather more inputs, before going back to their drawing board to tweak further.

They have 5 good years to get this well-crafted and crafted right before its implementation in 2021. Good luck to them! :xedfingers:

[jetsetter]

iRabbit:

So in the name of diversity, we dumb down our brightest while other countries are grooming their best from young. This is what I fear if the bands get too big and we disallow acad DSA in future.

My sentiments...

We can't rule that out yet, can we?

[Ikid]

http://www.straitstimes.com/politics/key-players-in-jobs-arena-must-change-mindset-too
[quote]Many of the complaints that followed were from parents who feel that, with the new PSLE scoring system, the advantage their academically bright children have over their peers will be eroded.[/quote]

[floppy]

Ikid:

http://www.straitstimes.com/politics/key-players-in-jobs-arena-must-change-mindset-too
[quote]Many of the complaints that followed were from parents who feel that, with the new PSLE scoring system, the advantage their academically bright children have over their peers will be eroded.

[/quote]The epitome of Kiasuism.

[Ikid]

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/going-beyond-grades-evolving-the-singapore-education-system
[quote]When MOE stopped releasing the list of top PSLE scorers, parents on websites such as Kiasuparents put together their own.[/quote]

[iRabbit]

jetsetter:

iRabbit:

So in the name of diversity, we dumb down our brightest while other countries are grooming their best from young. This is what I fear if the bands get too big and we disallow acad DSA in future.

My sentiments...

We can't rule that out yet, can we?

When I posted that remark, I was thinking of the really really smart children. You know the kind in GEP still can sweep multiple awards during EOY prize presentation, or those who were selected for secondary level national training team while they were still in primary sch.

Sometimes my son brings back model essays from sch. Seriously, if I didn't know better, I would have thought they were written by adults, not 11 year olds. So good were those works.

One really have to see the works of those children to truly understand why I feel it's a wasted opportunity if those raw diamonds are not sent to the best schools for polishing.