What Every Parent Need To Know About The New PSLE English Syllabus

Every year, the PSLE Math and Sci­ence papers spark live­ly dis­cus­sions, thanks to their chal­leng­ing, head­line-grab­bing ques­tions. 

Remem­ber the infa­mous 2021 Ivan and Helen Math ques­tion? Or the 2022 “cold turkey” Sci­ence ques­tion? 

These tricky prob­lems became instant hits.

But what about Eng­lish? Why doesn’t it get the same atten­tion?

Unlike Math or Sci­ence, the Eng­lish paper doesn’t often fea­ture a sin­gle jaw-drop­ping ques­tion that becomes the talk of the town. Instead, its dif­fi­cul­ty is sub­tle and, at times, decep­tive.

Is English Really Easier?


Eng­lish is often seen as sub­jec­tive or more man­age­able. After all, it’s a lan­guage we use every day. 

But here’s the catch. The very famil­iar­i­ty of Eng­lish makes its chal­lenges hard­er to spot. The com­plex­i­ty lies not in solv­ing equa­tions or con­duct­ing exper­i­ments but in con­struct­ing, inter­pret­ing, and express­ing mean­ing across dif­fer­ent con­texts.

While Eng­lish can be sub­jec­tive, it’s also guid­ed by rules that don’t change. And as the lan­guage evolves into a tool for effec­tive glob­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the demands of mas­ter­ing it grow, too.

The updat­ed Pri­ma­ry Eng­lish syl­labus, set to take effect in 2025, reflects this evo­lu­tion. It shifts the focus toward high­er-order think­ing skills and mul­ti­lit­era­cies, prepar­ing stu­dents for today’s dig­i­tal world.

How English Has Changed

Take Visu­al Text Com­pre­hen­sion as an exam­ple. Back in 2012, this sec­tion fea­tured sim­ple visu­als and straight­for­ward ques­tions. 

Fast for­ward to 2023, and stu­dents now deal with two-page web­sites loaded with infor­ma­tion. Extract­ing answers requires more than just read­ing, it demands inter­pre­ta­tion, analy­sis, and log­i­cal con­nec­tions.

And come 2025, the bar will be raised even high­er. Stu­dents will need to not only make infer­ences but also com­pare ideas across dif­fer­ent types of text.


The shift is clear: high­er-order think­ing skills are now the norm, and they’re here to stay.

What’s Changing in the PSLE English Syllabus?

Here’s a break­down of the updates you need to know:

1. Paper 1 (Writ­ing)

The weigh­tage for Con­tin­u­ous Writ­ing and Sit­u­a­tion­al Writ­ing is reduced slight­ly, with marks for Con­tin­u­ous Writ­ing drop­ping from 40 to 36 and for Sit­u­a­tion­al Writ­ing from 15 to 14.

The twist? One bul­let point in the Sit­u­a­tion­al Writ­ing task will require stu­dents to infer con­text and pro­vide an orig­i­nal idea, instead of sim­ply pulling answers from the ques­tion stim­u­lus. This encour­ages crit­i­cal think­ing and cre­ativ­i­ty.

While most stu­dents can gen­er­ate ideas for the basic bul­let points, we’ve observed that many strug­gle to pro­duce answers that are both rel­e­vant and real­is­tic. This is where prac­tice becomes key.

2. Paper 2 (Lan­guage Use and Com­pre­hen­sion)

The total score for Paper 2 will decrease from 95 to 90. Key changes include:

• Edit­ing: Reduced from 12 to 10 marks.

• Visu­al Text Com­pre­hen­sion: Reduced from 8 to 5 marks, now fea­tur­ing two linked texts—an image (Text 1) and writ­ten con­tent (Text 2). Stu­dents must read both close­ly, infer mean­ing, and con­nect ideas between the texts.

These changes push stu­dents to think crit­i­cal­ly and mir­ror the O‑Level Eng­lish for­mat, set­ting the stage for a smoother tran­si­tion to sec­ondary school.

3. Paper 4 (Oral)

The weigh­tage for oral assess­ments will increase, empha­sis­ing the impor­tance of spo­ken com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

• Read­ing Aloud: Marks increase from 10 to 15, and a pre­am­ble will now set the Pur­pose, Audi­ence, and Con­text (PAC) of the pas­sage. Stu­dents will encounter real-world sce­nar­ios like speech­es or announce­ments, mak­ing tone and deliv­ery more crit­i­cal than ever.

Stim­u­lus-Based Con­ver­sa­tion (SBC): Marks rise from 20 to 25, with a sig­nif­i­cant shift in the stim­uli used. Instead of posters with explana­to­ry text, stu­dents will now analyse images with min­i­mal or no text. Ques­tions are more infer­en­tial, requir­ing stu­dents to think crit­i­cal­ly, make log­i­cal con­nec­tions, and elab­o­rate inde­pen­dent­ly.

These updates reflect the syllabus’s push toward prac­ti­cal lan­guage use—preparing stu­dents for real-life con­ver­sa­tions and pub­lic speak­ing with con­fi­dence.

Our Thoughts on the Updates

Eng­lish is no longer just a school sub­ject. It’s a cru­cial tool for com­mu­ni­ca­tion in an increas­ing­ly glob­alised and dig­i­tal world. From craft­ing com­pelling emails to nav­i­gat­ing social media and dig­i­tal sto­ry­telling, mod­ern com­mu­ni­ca­tion demands mul­ti­lit­era­cies.

The updat­ed syl­labus aligns with these demands, equip­ping stu­dents with skills they’ll need for life. How­ev­er, while the new for­mat pri­ori­tis­es crit­i­cal think­ing and appli­ca­tion, the fun­da­men­tals of Eng­lish like gram­mar, flu­en­cy, and clar­i­ty remain unchanged. Sec­tions like Gram­mar MCQ and Syn­the­sis & Trans­for­ma­tion still empha­sise these basics.

So, is the new PSLE Eng­lish syl­labus too com­plex? 

Not at all. At its core, Eng­lish is still about one thing: clear and effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion. 

But make no mis­take. Stu­dents who lack a strong foun­da­tion or ade­quate expo­sure to the updat­ed syl­labus will find it chal­leng­ing to keep up.

The Bottom Line

Eng­lish may not grab head­lines like Math and Sci­ence, but its grow­ing com­plex­i­ty shouldn’t be over­looked. The updat­ed PSLE syl­labus isn’t just about test­ing knowl­edge. It’s about prepar­ing stu­dents to thrive in real-world sce­nar­ios.

To suc­ceed, stu­dents need a strong grasp of the fun­da­men­tals, con­sis­tent expo­sure to high­er-order think­ing tasks, and plen­ty of prac­tice nav­i­gat­ing the syl­labus changes. With these tools, they’ll be ready not just to tack­le PSLE Eng­lish, but to mas­ter the art of com­mu­ni­ca­tion for the future ahead.

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