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PSLE T score replaced by banding


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The real issue isn't the T-Score for PSLE, that's just a symptom.

 

The actual issue is the admission criteria to Secondary School - the ONLY reason people care so much for T-Score, and that it has become such a do or die exam is because it fully determines the quality of the school you go to. Your success or otherwise at primary school means totally nothing in the greater scheme of your life.

 

Your secondary school however is orders of magnitude more determinative. When you make admittance to secondary so dependent on T-Score of course people are going to freak.

 

By announcing this change - the horse is being put before the cart. The changes to the admission criteria should be changed first.

 

And for the record -

In New Zealand your school is determined by your address. Which raises all sorts of other issues - not least of which that "wealthy" areas then become very much self sustaining.

Agreed.

 

What's making things worse is the 6-yr thru train programme which leads to A levels or IB. No need to take O levels. Most of the good schs have this programme and it makes it very difficult for late bloomers in neighbourhood secondary sch who do well in O levels to enter the top few JCs.

 

This means your secondary sch will also affect which JC your kid will likely up... Confirm super pressure to do well at PSLE to enter good sec sch.

To be fair, there really need some runway before such a landmark change can be effected. LHL said during the 2013 rally himself that parents who currently had kids in school needn't worry because the policy wouldn't change immediately.

 

What if you had been preparing your kid through cram school for the past 6 years and just on PSLE year you're told that T-score has been abolished? You would definitely feel bitter. The child, who probably by now had his self-worth built on it (rightly or wrongly), will be lost looking for something else to prove himself.

 

Waiting for 6 years would really mean that nobody who has already embarked on the T-score route would have their legitimate expectations affected. May not be the best way, but would avoid the worst problems.

Not to mention the syllabus and exam methodswill also need time to be revamped and implemented from primary 1 to cater for the new system. Agree that it's better to roll out gradually and properly than to rush things thru

Edited by Jamesgetz
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i really do not think that teachers from the top schools are superior. they produce good results due to the quality of the students.

Didn't mind to imply that they are. But this could be the public's perception.

To be fair, there really need some runway before such a landmark change can be effected. LHL said during the 2013 rally himself that parents who currently had kids in school needn't worry because the policy wouldn't change immediately.

 

What if you had been preparing your kid through cram school for the past 6 years and just on PSLE year you're told that T-score has been abolished? You would definitely feel bitter. The child, who probably by now had his self-worth built on it (rightly or wrongly), will be lost looking for something else to prove himself.

 

Waiting for 6 years would really mean that nobody who has already embarked on the T-score route would have their legitimate expectations affected. May not be the best way, but would avoid the worst problems.

Read my earlier post about how moe cancelled the SATs and Chinese scores for uni admission the day before the results were released.

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Didn't mind to imply that they are. But this could be the public's perception.

 

Read my earlier post about how moe cancelled the SATs and Chinese scores for uni admission the day before the results were released.

 

read, including the speculation about white horse not having done well. this speculation was in fact shared by my old chinese teacher, who was a Nanyang University graduate that has been conditioned to be skeptical of all government intentions...

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read, including the speculation about white horse not having done well. this speculation was in fact shared by my old chinese teacher, who was a Nanyang University graduate that has been conditioned to be skeptical of all government intentions...

I would say that this belief is widespread among those of my batch if you ask them to explain the dramatic and sudden change.

 

Like you said, it is good that they provided some runway for the change but then it also means the converse is true and there are no reasonable answers for why the change in 2003 happened.

 

Anyway, it is a happy complaint for me since my Chinese sucks.

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Hypersonic

The real issue isn't the T-Score for PSLE, that's just a symptom.

 

The actual issue is the admission criteria to Secondary School - the ONLY reason people care so much for T-Score, and that it has become such a do or die exam is because it fully determines the quality of the school you go to. Your success or otherwise at primary school means totally nothing in the greater scheme of your life.

 

Your secondary school however is orders of magnitude more determinative. When you make admittance to secondary so dependent on T-Score of course people are going to freak.

 

By announcing this change - the horse is being put before the cart. The changes to the admission criteria should be changed first.

 

And for the record -

In New Zealand your school is determined by your address. Which raises all sorts of other issues - not least of which that "wealthy" areas then become very much self sustaining.

You seem stressed

 

How's the psle prep coming along?

 

Laffles girls ftw...

 

 

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i really do not think that teachers from the top schools are superior. they produce good results due to the quality of the students.

In my opinion, most of the caring Teachers are in Neighbourhood schools. They are the ones with passion to teach. But that's my own personal view

I am personally very happy that the system is changing . Both my kids will be under the revamp scheme

 

I hope this will translate to happier learning and less unnecessary academic stress/ comparisons with classmates

Bro, likely you will be disappointed.

 

You see what happened to the motherhood statement of "teach less learn more". Now, no one mentioned it anymore.

 

And reduce classroom time for more expediential learning... Because classroom time reduce, schools conduct remedial lessons to catch up the syllabus. Almost everyday got 1 to 2 hours of compulsory remedial.

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Twincharged

In my opinion, most of the caring Teachers are in Neighbourhood schools. They are the ones with passion to teach. But that's my own personal view

 

Bro, likely you will be disappointed.

 

You see what happened to the motherhood statement of "teach less learn more". Now, no one mentioned it anymore.

 

And reduce classroom time for more expediential learning... Because classroom time reduce, schools conduct remedial lessons to catch up the syllabus. Almost everyday got 1 to 2 hours of compulsory remedial.

1. My kid is in a 'premium top secondary school' and some of the teachers are so so at best.

 

2.The revamp seeks to ensure that the kids not only learn about flowers but have the time to smell and appreciate the flowers. My fear is that the opposite will happen. To ensure a leg up against the rest, parents could foreseeably push their kids to excel in CCAs and thrive/fight for leadership positions.

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In my opinion, most of the caring Teachers are in Neighbourhood schools. They are the ones with passion to teach. But that's my own personal view

 

Bro, likely you will be disappointed.

 

You see what happened to the motherhood statement of "teach less learn more". Now, no one mentioned it anymore.

 

And reduce classroom time for more expediential learning... Because classroom time reduce, schools conduct remedial lessons to catch up the syllabus. Almost everyday got 1 to 2 hours of compulsory remedial.

 

i think there are good and caring teachers in both neighbourhood and elite schools. i do know of a few in these schools.

 

i agree that it will be an uphill task to change the mindset of education within the next 10 yrs... 

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Turbocharged

1. My kid is in a 'premium top secondary school' and some of the teachers are so so at best.

 

2.The revamp seeks to ensure that the kids not only learn about flowers but have the time to smell and appreciate the flowers. My fear is that the opposite will happen. To ensure a leg up against the rest, parents could foreseeably push their kids to excel in CCAs and thrive/fight for leadership positions.

Exactly this - 

 

To me, I think that rather than focus on PSLE and the grading system, a more comprehensive rethink needs to be done of the entire system - all the way from entry to primary school, how secondary schools are selected and onwards to JC / Poly / Uni is managed. 

 

Any changes in the PSLE system are meaningless until we know how they will be integrated to secondary school selection.   We've seen what happens with DSA (witness the recent O level failure debacle), we've seen how some parents are trying to "buy" their way to a good secondary school, and there's also plenty of information available on how getting into a good primary school is gamed. 

 

I'm not so very convinced that schools based on zones is entirely the best way to go - but one thing you can be sure of, it would certainly remove a lot of the "grade" pressure and make primary school learning more of a preparation of secondary school than a competition - 

Bearing in mind that even at secondary school - this is not where "real" learning takes place - 

to my mind both primary and secondary schools put in place the foundations, the building blocks - the real heavy lifting when it comes to education is at technical institutes (trades) poly and Uni...

i think there are good and caring teachers in both neighbourhood and elite schools. i do know of a few in these schools.

 

i agree that it will be an uphill task to change the mindset of education within the next 10 yrs... 

How long has it taken for the current system to become like it is?  

That should tell you how long will be needed for it to really change. 

You seem stressed

 

How's the psle prep coming along?

 

Laffles girls ftw...

 

 

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Haha ...

 

Fark Laffles lor ...

I'm targeting Villa Maria - a good catholic school....

 

Only challenge there - I'm not catholic! 

 

not to worry, i think Radx can convert you

 

just pay him a visit and be his altar boy for a week

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Turbocharged

not to worry, i think Radx can convert you

 

just pay him a visit and be his altar boy for a week

there's only one thing I want to say to that...

 

post-52759-0-95957900-1460425820.jpg

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"Every creed and every race, has it's role and has it's place

One people, one nation, one Singapore"

 

Wonder which elite wrote this?

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I have yet to find a good school in Singapore.

 

Primary school, the good grades are made possible by Billion$ tuition

Secondary school, the good grades are made possible by Billion $ tuition

Junior College, the good grades are made possible by Billion $ tuition

Sans some really smart students and some classes that have very dedicated Teachers.

 

Who are we kidding? Singapore only have School with As students. Is that a good school? No.

 

All the wonderful grades that outside countries are looking at Singapore saying Wow! Do not reflect the Actual Education system we really have.

 

MOE, year after year try to add more syllabi and increase the level of difficulty to the subjects and you have teachers rushing for time to teach all at fast pace ending up going through the motions and most students end up in tuition centers with parents paying big $.

 

Until We seriously want to give our children a good holistic education we are just using the education system to sieve out scholars.

 

I don't intend to offend any teacher because I believe many teachers want to teach but have too much things on their hands that they have little choice and time to give

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I have yet to find a good school in Singapore.

 

Primary school, the good grades are made possible by Billion$ tuition

Secondary school, the good grades are made possible by Billion $ tuition

Junior College, the good grades are made possible by Billion $ tuition

Sans some really smart students and some classes that have very dedicated Teachers.

 

Who are we kidding? Singapore only have School with As students. Is that a good school? No.

 

All the wonderful grades that outside countries are looking at Singapore saying Wow! Do not reflect the Actual Education system we really have.

 

MOE, year after year try to add more syllabi and increase the level of difficulty to the subjects and you have teachers rushing for time to teach all at fast pace ending up going through the motions and most students end up in tuition centers with parents paying big $.

 

Until We seriously want to give our children a good holistic education we are just using the education system to sieve out scholars.

 

I don't intend to offend any teacher because I believe many teachers want to teach but have too much things on their hands that they have little choice and time to give

 

Thats why I said MOE just want to have the cake and eat it as well. If they are really sincere in having a holistic education, why not just abolish PSLE? All those what GEP, DSA etc has nothing to do with providing a holistic education at all. Before they want to talk about all this, they should address the issue of lack of time for teachers to teach, the reliance on tuition/enrichment and remedial classes.

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May I suggest  the following

 

1. All our ang mo schools as "Raffles (name of constituency)" 

2. All our Chinese schools as "Hwa Chong (nam of constituency)"

 

Like that everybody is raffles and hwa chong. So, don't need to fight until skull crack. Everybody happy and song song...

 

 

Raffles @ jurong west campus.............Raffles @ tampines campus............Raffles @ woodlands campus.......... [thumbsup]  [laugh]  [laugh]

 

forgot that there must be campus 1....2...3...4.......etc.............

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they can never change the system.................whatever they try to hide..............the core is still the same..............many schools have started with going away with the placement of class system and try to create illusion that students are being mixed in every class...........but in reality........the students themselves know which is the best class............where are the soccer boys.......and which class to avoid if you want to do well in studies.............. [laugh]  [laugh]  [laugh]

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nbzzz why the chicken farm never think of that… do banding also… good biz model... [:p] 

 

 

have lah..............cat 40...............cat 80............cat 120..............cat 150...............cat 200................all banded mah............ [:p]  [laugh]  [laugh]

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