EDUCATION REFORM TO BRING ABOUT NEW PSLE SCORING SYSTEM
According to our education minister, Mr Ong, the Singapore education system is undergoing revamping, where a myriad of measures is being systematically administered over time.
STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENTS TAKE PRIORITY
The new PSLE scoring system will not affect student’s opportunities to enter their preferred stream in secondary school, but rather shift their focus on themselves.
Instead of focusing on achieving high T-scores to compare with others, like in a competition, the new system will enable students to concentrate on their own targets to achieve.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) predicts that this measure will not impact streaming, as the percentage of students going to the Express stream will not change much. 20 percent of students are will still continue to pursue Higher Mother Tongue.
Mr Ong assures that under the new PSLE scoring system, no changes will be made to subjects, curriculum, assessments and teaching methods.
He also equated the current scoring system, that uses T-scores, to that of a national running competition. Importance is placed on high T-scores and ranking, rather than the students’ individual results. The new PSLE scoring system will shift the focus on the individual scores.
NEW SYSTEM TRANSPARENT THAN T-SCORE
According to Mr Ong, some parents expected the new system to be more complicated. But he said it was a lot more transparent than the current T-score system.
Once the parents have been introduced to the new system and have internalised it, the system would not seem as difficult. Mr Ong is confident that by 2021, parents will be much more familiar with the new PSLE scoring system and how it is calculated.
Under the new PSLE scoring system, students will be graded based on an Achievement Level (AL) score ranging from 1 to 8, with 1 being the best score and 8 the lowest. The AL system will produce 29 possible scores.
Through this new system, MOE aims to reduce the differentiation and T-score competition in young students. Instead, the system encourages the recognition of students’ individual achievements regardless of how their peers have done.