The high-stakes Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) should be
scrapped to counter the country's preoccupation with academic
scores - one of three unhealthy trends plaguing the education
system here, Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC) said yesterday.
At 12, the pupils are also too young to be sorted by potential or
ability, she suggested.
Ms Phua also renewed her call for the Ministry of Education (MOE)
to pilot a 10-year through-train school model - with children
moving from the primary to secondary level without taking a
national exam at Primary 6. Referring to the upcoming revamp of the
PSLE grading system, she said: "The problem is unlikely to
disappear even if we replace PSLE T-scores with banding. Students
will start scoring 4As or 5As and so forth, and we are back to
square one."
The obsession with academic scores is due to "years of
conditioning" and because most still believe academic success is
the best avenue for social mobility, she said.
But the pursuit of academic rigour has become an impairment as even
academically strong students are seeking tuition; popular secondary
schools are selecting students based on their PSLE cut-off points;
and teachers are focusing on preparing students to take
standardised tests, Ms Phua added. "It is hard to cultivate or
inculcate a love for learning when all that matters to the majority
is the score from a series of high-stakes exams."
The two other negative trends are parents putting in top dollar to
ensure their children's academic success; and physically
segregating students of different learning abilities.
She said "parentocracy" - where children gain success due to their
parents' wealth and social capital and not their own means - will
"further rear its ugly head" as the stakes of academic scores
become higher.
Ms Phua said it is an "open secret" that the Direct School
Admission Exercise, which lets students enter secondary schools
based on achievements in sports or the arts even if their PSLE
scores fall below the cut-off points, benefits children from
wealthier homes.
They have the means to be nurtured in specific areas from a young
age, she said.
To level the playing field, Ms Phua suggested developing a software
which teachers, students and parents can share and access the
best learning materials and practices. Those who share good
material and pedagogies should be rewarded, she said.
The current practice of physically segregating students when they
are assessed to learn differently impedes the building of trust and
empathy, said Ms Phua.
Students are now sorted into top schools or schools focusing on
sports, the arts, or on supporting those who are academically
weaker. They meet and interact only occasionally at events.
This practice should be examined and even scrapped, said Ms Phua.
She instead suggested that the ministry pilot "education villages",
which will take in students of different abilities and
backgrounds.
"Let those who are academically strong learn via subject-banded
classes, but design school campuses that allow diversity and
vibrant social interactions for all.
"There is no better way to learn inclusion except to play, eat,
interact and learn with others who are unlike yourself," she
added.
Similarly, Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio GRC) felt sorting
secondary level students into Express and Normal streams "creates
and entrenches the self-limiting belief... that they are only as
good as the academic stream they are in".
She also wants the Special Assistance Plan schools to be
relooked.
These schools promote the learning of the Chinese language and
culture and admit students who have scored well in both the Chinese
and English languages at the PSLE. They should recruit students who
made the grade but did not take the Chinese language exams at the
PSLE, as this will allow for "multiracial interactions and
learning", she said.
The students will instead take Chinese as a third language from
Secondary 1, she added.
Mr Png Eng Huat (Hougang) is also worried about tuition.
He questioned the effectiveness of MOE's "teach less, learn more"
approach, which had trimmed syllabuses to give students more time
to learn on their own.
"Has the shift to focus on quality teaching instead of quantity
teaching... merely shifted more of the learning from the classroom
to the private tutors?" he asked.
Mr Png wants the ministry to study the billion-dollar tuition
culture here to help educators formulate better policies.
This article was first published on Jan 28,
2016.
