MOE to stop publishing names of top students?
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By Lee Wei Ling
There has been much debate in recent weeks about the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). It seems to be an extremely stressful examination not just for students but also for their parents.
When I took my PSLE in 1966, it was not in the least stressful. I was sure I would pass the examination, especially since most of the questions were multiple-choice ones. Even if one did not know the answer to the questions, one could, by a process of logical elimination, have a high chance of hitting upon the correct answer.
Indeed, the Primary 6 end-of-year examination at my own school caused me more stress than did the PSLE. As my father was planning to attend my Primary 6 graduation ceremony, I was determined to top my class. By contrast, I did not care if I topped the PSLE - for the good reason that in those days, nobody knew who topped the examination. All we were told was whether or not we had passed the PSLE. I passed; no angst over ranking; end of story.
I cannot remember if my PSLE score determined which secondary school I attended. I wanted to stay on at Nanyang where I had close friends, and it never crossed my mind that I would not qualify for Nanyang Girls’ High School.
At that time, Nanyang Primary and Nanyang Girls’ High were not among the elite schools in Singapore. Their students came from a cross-section of society. My friends included the children of hawkers as well as of millionaires. Differences in wealth never bothered us. That I think is a good thing.
Now Nanyang is considered an elite school. Some parents move house to be within 1km of the school so their children have a better chance of gaining admission to Nanyang, thus raising property prices in the area.
I view Nanyang’s elite status today with some regret. Perhaps my PSLE score would not have qualified me for acceptance to the present Nanyang Girls’ High School. But would that have been such a bad thing?
I may have been posted to a non-elite, neighbourhood school, made friends with people from all walks of life, and I would have been perfectly happy. I knew even as a child that I was materially privileged, but I also knew that I had done nothing to earn that privilege.
That the PSLE now causes so much stress is largely because the results are presented not only as grades for each subject but also as a T-score - an aggregate score derived from comparison with the scores of all the other candidates. The T-score feels like a psychological threat because admission to a school of one’s choice is decided mainly, although not solely, by it.
Another source of stress is that the PSLE now includes questions that require a written response, not just multiple-choice questions. Parents claim too that the examination questions are now much more difficult than when they took the examination.
Problem sums, especially, pose a serious difficulty. Children with a weak command of English struggle both to understand the question and to do the maths.
There are ways to make the differentiation of the results less precise, hence less stressful. Currently, posting to secondary schools is based on the aggregate T-score taken to two decimal places! If we could have a system where candidates are divided into bands (for example, between 130 and 140), with those scoring above a certain range (say 250 or 260) corresponding to the top decile of students, there would be no need to differentiate them further.
For the purpose of posting, all students within the same band would stand an equal chance of getting into particular schools. If there were more applicants than places available in those schools, entry might be based on balloting. Such a procedure would have the advantage of spreading out talented students among a larger group of schools than now.
At present, academically strong students are accepted into a limited number of elite schools. They tend to come from middle-class or upper middle-class homes. As a result, they are unaware that many Singaporean students come from poorer homes, have to do housework and may also have to help out at hawker stalls or do other odd jobs to supplement the family income.
I agree with Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat’s decision not to highlight the top PSLE scorer of the year. Given this move, perhaps the practice of having a few extra difficult questions to determine who are the "best" candidates - but which leaves so many good but not top-class candidates demoralised - might be abolished. The stress of the PSLE will be considerably lessened thus.
Still, I believe the PSLE serves a purpose. First, the T-score is an objective measure to help place students in a variety of schools according to their academic ability. Second, it also helps us channel students into the stream most appropriate for them - Express, Normal (Academic), Normal (Technical) and so on.
Yes, the examination will cause some stress no matter what we do. But a little stress is not a bad thing. After all, we will all encounter some stress some time in our lives. We might as well get used to it while we are young.
Unless we have encountered some hardship and learnt to overcome it, we would find it difficult to cope with the vicissitudes of fate. For all able-bodied Singaporean men, there is national service, a necessity to guarantee Singapore’s security. If a child is overwhelmed by PSLE, can he survive NS?
In sum, I believe the PSLE needs some modification, but it certainly should not be abolished.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute. -
Nebbermind:
Whether I would or not is not the point. The point here is if a sizable portion of overseas students are allowed to drop 1-2 level each year, it really does skew the competition. If it's just a small number, then no issue.
Would u retain your kids 1~2years to gain this advantage? :scratchhead:FQW:
OT a bit.
What do pple here think about overseas kids joining our pri sch midway and dropping 1-2 levels? That's one area I feel puts all 12-yr old kids here [local or otherwise] at a big disadvantage. It'll be useful to know how many such cases are there each year. -
slmkhoo:
How many non-Singaporeans are there taking PSLE every year? Is it a big fraction of the cohort? If it's small, does it really matter if they have some advantage in age? They have a huge disadvantage in language. If we English-speakers sent our kids to school in China, say, would we expect our kids to join their age peers if they only enter in P3 or P4?[/quote]While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
Would u retain your kids 1~2years to gain this advantage? :scratchhead:Nebbermind:
[quote=\"FQW\"]OT a bit.
What do pple here think about overseas kids joining our pri sch midway and dropping 1-2 levels? That's one area I feel puts all 12-yr old kids here [local or otherwise] at a big disadvantage. It'll be useful to know how many such cases are there each year.
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all. -
FQW:
For a rough estimate, try the difference btw no.of babies born in a particular year and no.of students who took PSLE 12 years later.
While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all. -
Frankly, If you think your kid is good for DSA then go ahead and compete with the rest of applicants based on the academic to get a CO. The IP sch never stop any child from applying. No point complaining unfair this and that.
Ask yourself the following situation:
- If your mainstream kid got a CO in the IP sch and yet later score lower then the sch COP in PSLE, is he/she going to withdraw and give his/her seat to the kid who meet the COP?
Really endless to this green eyes mindset which got nothing to do with this thread topic. -
FQW:
While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
How many non-Singaporeans are there taking PSLE every year? Is it a big fraction of the cohort? If it's small, does it really matter if they have some advantage in age? They have a huge disadvantage in language. If we English-speakers sent our kids to school in China, say, would we expect our kids to join their age peers if they only enter in P3 or P4?slmkhoo:
[quote=\"Nebbermind\"]
Would u retain your kids 1~2years to gain this advantage? :scratchhead:
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all.[/quote]:grphug:
Embrace them?
Their overall numbers might be small in proportion to the whole cohort but i'm curious what is their composition in top schools like Hwa Chong, NYGS, RI, RGS, GEP programs or successful DSAs either by academic or Chinese instruments. If the proportion in top/IP schools are high then are there enough places for locals to join the top JCs like HCI or RI? Judging from the COP of 3 points from 6 subjects I think not easy.
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CayennePepper:
Agree with you KPI is a top stress for teachers to make them perform and gain promotion or better increment.
(a) DSA's objective is not to push parents to push their kids to pursue certain activities. That these misguided parents CHOOSE to make use of DSA in this manner is not the fault of the scheme! It was not designed to be thus exploited!david59:
DSA pushes some parents to make their kids join certain sports or activities with the unceasing hope that their kids can get into top schools despite their mediocre academic results. Pushing the kids to do things they may not like is unhealthy for family bonding. It's fine if the kid enjoys. However, the greatest stress comes when the kid finds himself struggling to perform in the elite school he would otherwise be unable to get into.
GEP robs the neighborhood schools of their top best students and give them to the elite schools who thus constantly perform excellingly above national average in PSLE. How then can these neighborhood schools ensure that they can continue to produce top scorers above 270 in the yearly PSLE?
(b) Actually, there appears to be many, many, many schools producing consistently good results year after year. Certainly far more than the few GE centres. And I would think if a school's objective is simply to produce top scorers, it has completely missed the point of education. If that is indeed the case, then I would blame it on 3 letters-- KPI!
Regard to pt a, you are right about the misguided parents. Nevertheless, why a need for DSA? Of course it is bound to be some good in DSA. However, why create a scheme that causes these students who are not on par with their peers in the elite school to suffer so much stress academically. Besides, isn't it obviously unfair advantage for the DSA schools to procure the cream of the crop into their respective CCAs teams who are like the pros when competing against other schools who do not have this advantage. I attribute no honor to such teams who win by such unfair advantage. It is like in a game, I choose all the skillful players and the other person is left with the leftovers. Should I feel great that my team win. :oops:
As for pt. b, yes, the neighborhood schools are still doing well. But nevertheless, this forming of elite classes is probably a recent phenomenon. Why are schools beginning to do this? Isn't it unfair that all the other classes have 40 students but this elite class has only 20 to 25? What is their objective? Ethically right to do so? Does MOE condone such strategy? Btw, in the past, schools' desire was to be able to display a big banner to show that their school has achieve 100% PSLE passes. That was a noble goal to strive and achieve.
But now, the schools' desire is to show off how many of their students score top marks in the same huge banner. It does not matter how many of their students fail their PSLE. -
metz:
That's really the extreme scenario. You mean every single overseas student - regardless if nationality - will drop at least one level?
For a rough estimate, try the difference btw no.of babies born in a particular year and no.of students who took PSLE 12 years later.FQW:
While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all. -
sinoboy:
What in your opinion constitutes a high proportion?
Their overall numbers might be small in proportion to the whole cohort but i'm curious what is their composition in top schools like Hwa Chong, NYGS, RI, RGS, GEP programs or successful DSAs either by academic or Chinese instruments. If the proportion in top/IP schools are high then are there enough places for locals to join the top JCs like HCI or RI? Judging from the COP of 3 points from 6 subjects I think not easy. -
FQW:
That's really the extreme scenario. You mean every single overseas student - regardless if nationality - will drop at least one level?[/quote]As I have indicated, it's a rough estimate of how large the number might potentially be.
For a rough estimate, try the difference btw no.of babies born in a particular year and no.of students who took PSLE 12 years later.metz:
[quote=\"FQW\"]
While they may be disadvantaged in EL, they will have a big advantage in terms of MT, maths and maturity. My post is not an attempt at FT-bashing. I feel not being xenophobic doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade, a spade. Competing against peers who are 2 yrs younger really have its advantage.
Like you, I've always been curious about how large this group of students is. That's all.
For a more accurate estimate, one should exclude the number of Sg students who are on LOA, if the data is available.
Of course, the most accurate data would be directly from MOE.
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