Theme Launch: Rethinking Singapore’s PSLE

by Kalsum Harun

Layout by Zarah Saleem Javed and Kalsum Harun

For the first time since taking over HomeschoolSingapore.sg as the editor in 2021, I am engaging a hot-button issue in our local educational landscape.

Discussions on the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) are often contentious from a state-society perspective and among members of society. Within the homeschooling community, there is a lack of consensus on the usefulness of the PSLE, which often translates into a gridlock in fronting a homeschooler’s position on the big exam. Additionally, personal participation in the public arena in ways construed as being “overly critical” or attempting to represent the views of the other homeschoolers is also frowned upon. The latter group would promptly remind the former of the contractual obligation for their children to sit for the PSLE under local compulsory education exemption arrangements and other exaltations to maintain forbearance, as homeschooling should be seen as a privilege, not a right.

Despite the worthy intentions of all parties, these dynamics have led to self-censorship among conflict-averse individuals, on the one hand, and the perpetuation of “echo chambers” of seemingly diametrically opposing positions, on the other. No one dares to ignite, or much less be caught in a crossfire while trying to weigh personal, pragmatic stances in their children’s interest against the intellectual, critical ruminations towards societal benefits. 

While I am all for respecting individual choices on whether to engage in these matters, the extent they want to do so and on which platforms, I feel it is remiss not to attempt to consolidate the insights of homeschooling parents and proponents of alternative education at the forefront of preparing their children and/or students for the PSLE, who have something to share. After all, some were former school educators, but nearly all are in a reflexive process of carrying out holistic, child-centred learning approaches in the best ways possible. There is something to be learned from everyone to realise a better reality. Is there a middle ground?

Enter: Our Homeschool Youth Interns

As the Editor, the above considerations have long served as inertia against any overt engagements with matters regarded as contentions within the community—until now. 

My vision of harnessing the voices of our homeschool youth served me with my first challenge: going out of my comfort zone. When I sent the writing interns out to propose and develop their preferred projects for the website’s thematic series, Ria Chhabra returned with the issue of “Rethinking Singapore’s Primary School Leaving Examinations”. In response, Ilka Aedorra, our media intern, quickly put her name in the hat for the topic. Now, when two enthusiastic youths want to put their stamp on the narratives surrounding a particular topic, it is only fitting as their mentors to honour their choice.

After all, one’s biography significantly shapes the issues one prioritises and advocates for. As the socialisation theory suggests, people’s beliefs, values, and interests are shaped by their interactions with various entities. As individuals have different experiences, they develop unique perspectives. Being young enough to have recent memories of taking the PSLE and attaining a higher level of maturity to reflect on their experiences, the voices of our youth matter – especially since it is their future that we purport to be concerned with. By empowering the youth to deconstruct the issues and apply innovative thinking, we benefit from their fresh perspectives that are also matched by their energy and enthusiasm. Youth involvement in current issues helps build a generation that is aware and proactive about societal challenges, ensuring long-term commitment and sustainability.

Rethinking Along Multiple Strands 

We would be remiss if we began to rethink the PSLE and its role in our education system without fully acknowledging it as a shared Singapore story. We share in common not only the fact that we have gone through the examinations but also the journey of educational reforms over the years. From the policy intents to the unintended consequences, opposition, and counter-movements, I have captured as much of these as possible to help us make more informed evaluations and conclusions.

While the PSLE should not be our sole preoccupation in analysing our education system, and some time needs to pass before we can evaluate the effectiveness of recent reforms by the Ministry of Education (MOE), given the urgency in addressing the social-emotional health of our youth, conversations on how we ought to move forward with the PSLE should continue. More questions may need to be asked before we find any semblance of the solutions, and our “rethinking” of the PSLE may need to be done at multiple strands rather than a single path.

1. Rethinking doing away with the PSLE

Singapore is the only nation that subjects 12-year-olds to this high-stakes standardised test. A quick scan of the ages at which high-stakes standardised testing is first administered in other top-performing countries in the PISA rankings would show this. Those concerned that Singapore might lose its competitive edge by removing the PSLE could study how academic performance is measured without standardised testing for students before 15 years old in these education systems. How are the students’ learning and teachers’ performance assessed? What is tested in terms of subjects and the curriculum? How are the results used, and how do they impact the students’ educational journeys?

The necessity of a high-stakes examination to assess students’ learning must not be taken as a given. Member of Parliament Denise Phua raised in Parliament in her impassioned speech on the Sacred Cows of Education in 2019 about how she “disagree(s) with MOE’s stand that PSLE is important to ‘gauge how students have done’ as “(t)here are other ways of conducting formative and summative assessments at any age, at any interval.” At a normative level, the American Educational Research Association calls for protecting students against high-stakes decisions based on a single test. In its position statement on high-stakes testing, the association also underlines the need to provide “alternative acceptable means… to demonstrate attainment of the tested standards” for students with “credible evidence that a test score may not adequately reflect a student’s true proficiency.” The question of alternative testing methods is especially pertinent in assessing students with mild special education needs –  a group on which the next thematic series will expound.

Feasibility studies on systems to replace the prevailing one should explore alternative pathways and the ecosystem. For the former, it is highly commendable that MOE is “considering the primary to secondary through-train idea.” We look forward to MOE piloting the programme sooner rather than later, as this decade-old idea will take another decade for the 10-year term to run its entire course. However, while we are at it, we should also look at the ecosystem.  

2. Rethinking how the PSLE is conducted

Recently, much attention has been focused on the PSLE scoring reforms and the marking process to dampen students’ and parents’ anxieties. However, not much vibrant discussion has surfaced on the scope of the curriculum, the expected levels of “process skills” being tested for our 12-year-olds, and the extent to which they influence the children’s academic, social and emotional development further down the line. Are they development-appropriate?

Why is it essential that we know these? What we can observe are signs of our students not coping well.

Academically, without the tuition industry and the inventive strategies that have emerged to help students “hack” their learning and answering techniques, students likely have difficulty keeping up with their learning and attaining their goals. The 2016 IPS Study also documented that nearly half of the respondents (49.6%) reported that their children are “not keeping up with what is taught in school”, and “most parents agreed that the primary school curriculum should be made more manageable (93.7 per cent).”

Emotionally, the mental health outlook of our youth is indicative of prolonged exposure to high-stress conditions. Speaking to educators of tertiary institutions, one could gather anecdotes of students who have been performing well enough to get into the highly sought-after schools falling into depression and/or struggling with mental health ailments. While the initiatives to ramp up mental health services in Singapore are commendable developments, we need to be conscious of merely taking a pathological approach towards managing this issue. Taking on a systemic approach by addressing the structures that drive certain behaviours and mindsets is the only sustainable way forward.

We need an honest look into the curriculum and testing standards for our children, not only to ensure that they are developmentally appropriate but also to meet their developmental needs. While individuals can be “trained” to attain academic standards beyond what is developmentally appropriate, over time, such toiling takes a toll on their mental health.

Suppose the PSLE is what it purported to be: a checkpoint at the end of compulsory education to ensure our nation’s children attain a “common knowledge that will provide a firm foundation for further education”. Should the testing not simply be for that purpose, without being a tool in a sorting mechanism for secondary schools?

3. Rethinking how we manage the PSLE in its current form

In the meantime, heeding the mainstream narrative, we need to nurture a mindset change towards the PSLE in its current form.

This is undoubtedly a hard sell as parents fuel their children’s aspirations for coveted schools and programmes assigned mainly via the PSLE instrument. The link between test anxiety and school allocation is apparent, especially when one compares Primary Six students in mainstream schools with homeschoolers in their cohort who are not affected by the consideration of school choices. One only needs to watch the latter group during their “preliminary exam stimulation” and examination days; they are relatively unperturbed by the process, and onlookers can even catch glimpses of joy!

The cultural shift required in society goes beyond the need to look at high-stakes examinations without batting an eye. Moving away from a laser focus on our attitudes towards testing, we must reassess our perspectives towards time. Do we respect our children’s time enough not to fill it with what we adults deem “good” for them?

This call for a mindset shift is both our immediate battle cry and the last line of defence. Due to the intrinsic relationships in how the nation’s education and economic structures have incentivised certain behaviours over time, the state and society must collectively counter this tide on all fronts.

A Call to Action

In launching this thematic series on Rethinking the PSLE, we aim to create space for an ongoing debate. The section is dedicated to collating pieces contributing to discussions on the three levels of rethinking outlined above and ideas responding to Member of Parliament Denise Phua’s question to Parliament in 2019:

We welcome any education enthusiast to offer their views for publication. Students, parents, counsellors, and even teachers who wish to publish anonymously—anyone is welcome to shed light on the issue based on their experience. Comment on our social media platforms or submit your stories or opinion pieces to editor@homeschoolsingapore.sg.

We acknowledge our limitations—we neither have full access to data nor unrestricted vantage points beyond our respective circles of influence and socialisation. No single article published in this series will likely offer a perfect solution. However, our shared stories and aspirations may lead us somewhat closer to it.

Therein lies the power of collective action – and the resilience to weather the reality that there is no perfect movement but many imperfect ones.

References

“AERA Position Statement on High-Stakes Testing in Pre-K – 12 Education,” American Educational Research Association. Jul, 2000. https://www.aera.net (accessed Apr 4, 2024)

“Overview of Compulsory Education,” Ministry of Education Singapore. https://www.moe.gov.sg  (accessed Apr 12, 2024)

Lim, John. “School Exams Are Not the Issue — Insufficient Unstructured Time Is,” Rice Media. May 17, 2022. https://www.ricemedia.co (accessed Apr 10, 2024)

Mathews, Lim and See. “Parents’ Perceptions of the Singapore Primary School System,” IPS Working Papers, No. 27, 2017

Phua, Denise. “Sacred Cows of Education,” Denise Phua. Mar 6, 2019. https://www.denisephua.sg (accessed Apr 15, 2024)

Tan, Fiona & Tan, Nixon. “MOE considering primary to secondary school through-train programme idea but ‘non-trivial’ issues remain: Chan Chun Sing,” Mothership. Mar 2, 2023. https://mothership.sg  (accessed Apr 4, 2024)