Primary school streaming to be replaced by subject-based
banding
Posted: 28 September 2006 1345 hrs
From 2008, streaming in primary schools will be scrapped and
replaced by subject-based banding.
What this means is that weaker students can take a combination of
foundation and standard courses, depending on what they are good
at.
At Guangyang Primary, instead of staying with the same class all
day, students go to different mathematics and mother-tongue classes
based on their abilities.
The weaker pupils are given more personalised teaching.
Come 2008, such customised learning will replace streaming.
Chua Pei Pei, Head of Department for Mathematics at Guangyang
Primary, said: "Pupils are going to be grouped according to their
competency in the subject itself. So with that coming in place, the
pupil's ability can actually be stretched further. It is actually
customising the curriculum to suit the student's learning
ability."
Currently, 40% of EM3 students pass at least one subject in their
Primary Four examinations.
With the new system, students can take the subjects that they have
passed in, at the standard level and the rest, at a foundation
level.
Foundation subjects are more basic versions of standard subjects
and are easier to learn.
So students can develop their ability in the stronger subjects and
work on the weaker ones.
Any combination will be allowed as long as it works for the
child.
With the change, students, who would be in the EM3 stream under the
current system, will be spending more than half of their curriculum
time with those from the merged stream.
EM1 and EM2 were merged in 2004.
The change also benefits students from the merged stream, who can
take subjects they are not good in, at the foundation level.
Such customisation is possible as schools now have enough teaching
resources to tailor to smaller classes.
Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: "The people who
were calling for doing away with EM3 were also calling for doing
away with ability-based education. In other words, everyone studies
the same thing. It doesn't look nice to be studying a simpler
subject and so on, so forth.
"We think it is fair, and the most decent thing to do is to give a
student, who is struggling in a subject, something more fundamental
to work on, consolidate his learning and progress from there. And
that is why the foundation subjects have their place.
"What we are doing is moving from a fixed menu to an ala carte menu
- choose the subjects you are strong in, for the subjects you are
weak in, consolidate your learning at a foundation level."
Schools will advise parents and students on the subject
combinations to take at the end of Primary Four.
The Singapore Examination and Assessment Board is currently
devising a method of computing the PSLE aggregate for students who
take a mix of standard and foundation subjects. - CNA/ir
Haiz........why can't they make up their mind?
