How the removal of all Primary and Secondary Mid Year Examinations in 2023 will affect your child?

With 2023 well under­way, you may already be aware of a major adjust­ment in your child’s school. For the first time in Singapore’s edu­ca­tion his­to­ry, your child, whether he/she is in pri­ma­ry or sec­ondary school, would not have to sit for a mid-year examination.This game-chang­ing announce­ment last year by edu­ca­tion min­is­ter, Mr Chan Chun Sing. The new rule that all gov­ern­ment schools must fol­low is that mid-year exam­i­na­tions are to be removed for “all Pri­ma­ry and Sec­ondary school lev­els” by 2023.

This removal of mid-year exam­i­na­tions also stretch­es to apply to Pri­ma­ry 6 and Sec­ondary 4/5 stu­dents who are sit­ting for the PSLE and GCE N and O Lev­el exam­i­na­tions respec­tive­ly. The ratio­nale for this major change is clear- The Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion wish­es to intro­duce a new learn­ing cul­ture in Sin­ga­pore. Quot­ing Mr Chan, the min­istry wants to see stu­dents “focus more on their learn­ing and less on marks”. This puts schools in a direc­tion to ded­i­cate more time to “self-direct­ed learn­ing and devel­op­ing 21st-cen­tu­ry com­pe­ten­cies”. The mes­sage is clear. A child should be groomed to be inde­pen­dent learn­ers who are equipped with the tools to suc­ceed in an ever-chang­ing world. Doing well for exam­i­na­tions is not the pri­or­i­ty and should take a back­seat. This posi­tion brings Sin­ga­pore edu­ca­tion clos­er to the mod­el of inter­na­tion­al schools.

In many inter­na­tion­al schools, gen­er­al learn­ing as opposed to exam-tak­ing is the pri­ma­ry focus. There are of course tests and exam­i­na­tions but they are com­par­a­tive­ly sparse and less rig­or­ous. How­ev­er, there is one sig­nif­i­cant fea­ture of the inter­na­tion­al school pro­gres­sion that is impor­tant to note. In inter­na­tion­al schools, stu­dents are vir­tu­al­ly guar­an­teed pro­gres­sion from Ele­men­tary school to Mid­dle school to High school. So although there is a final exam­i­na­tion to sit for, the results of the final exam­i­na­tion does not impact as much on what school the stu­dent would be able to get into. With less at stake, stu­dents, par­ents and teach­ers can afford to fix­ate less on exam­i­na­tions and focus more on learn­ing and hon­ing oth­er skills.

The same can­not be said of the sit­u­a­tion in Sin­ga­pore. The PSLE and the GCE N and O Lev­els car­ry a lot more weight. Your child’s per­for­mance in these exam­i­na­tions deter­mine the stream, the school and the sub­jects he or she would qual­i­fy for in the next step of his or her edu­ca­tion jour­ney. There is so much on the line. Thus, it is doubt­ed whether stu­dents, par­ents and teach­ers can tru­ly take their mind off tests and exam­i­na­tions. That is not to say that this new posi­tion adopt­ed by the Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion was a wrong or bad one. It just needs the fol­low­ing tweaks in our gen­er­al mind­set:

Be open about the importance of examinations in Singapore

As men­tioned, exam­i­na­tions in local schools car­ry much impor­tance and sig­nif­i­cance. Slash­ing the num­ber of exam­i­na­tions that stu­dents take in a year could cause more wor­ry. Mid-year exam­i­na­tions serve as moti­va­tion to stu­dents to revise their work. They also serve as a check on stu­dents’ progress and also help stu­dents fine-tune their exam-tak­ing skills. Hav­ing only one com­plete exam­i­na­tion at the end of the year might over­whelm stu­dents and give them too late a wake-up call should they not per­form up to expec­ta­tions.

Recognise that different stages of education should have a different emphasis

The move to direct teach­ing at impor­tant life skills as opposed to exam-tak­ing skills should be applaud­ed. How­ev­er, as the old adage goes, there is a right time for every­thing. The PSLE and the GCE N and O Lev­els are piv­otal. Stu­dents would want to (and should) do their best for them. As such, there should be ample time carved out in schools to pre­pare stu­dents for these exam­i­na­tions.

Pri­ma­ry 5 and 6 are cru­cial years. So too are the years from Sec­ondary 3, 4 to 5. As such, these years should be ded­i­cat­ed to exam excel­lence. As for the low­er years, this is when stu­dents have the time and the head­space to explore inter­ests and strength­en their love for learn­ing.

Being ‘real’ and clear about the objectives of every level

At Think Teach, we are clear on what we want to help stu­dents achieve at every stage of their learn­ing jour­ney. We have expert­ly designed our cur­ricu­lum to reflect this.

Primary 1 to 2: Discover your love for learning

This is the begin­ning of a child’s long (and hope­ful­ly) enjoy­able edu­ca­tion jour­ney. Let’s not kill the fun with exam­i­na­tions. Remov­ing all exam­i­na­tions at this stage is the right move. What we focus on is to intro­duce fun and hands-on activ­i­ties where stu­dents dis­cov­er the joy of and their love for learn­ing.

Primary 3 to 4: Explore your interest

Pri­ma­ry 3 and 4 are still con­sid­ered ear­ly years. Instead of the strong empha­sis on exam­i­na­tions, we sup­port stu­dents to explore their inter­ests in the lan­guages, math­e­mat­ics and/or sci­ence. They con­duct exper­i­ments in sci­ence, build shapes and form num­ber pat­terns in math­e­mat­ics and read chil­dren sto­ries, poet­ry and cur­rent affairs in Eng­lish and Chi­nese. We cov­er a lot of ground in the hopes that some­thing would strike a chord in your child and spur him or her to explore that even fur­ther.

Primary 5 to 6: Prepare for PSLE success

Alas, the PSLE looms large ahead. With 2 years left on the clock, it is time to turn our atten­tion to this major nation­al exam­i­na­tion. We are unabashed­ly exam-cen­tric in these final years of pri­ma­ry school. With so much on the line, we expose stu­dents to smart tech­niques and skills which would aid them to achieve PSLE suc­cess. We have our mock exam­i­na­tions and block quizzes to keep our stu­dents on their toes and get them used to the demands of exam-tak­ing. We believe in ear­ly and ample prepa­ra­tion.

Secondary 1 to 4: Prepare for streaming and the GCE N and O Levels

For­tu­nate­ly or unfor­tu­nate­ly, in addi­tion to the GCE O and N Lev­els, sec­ondary school stu­dents in Sin­ga­pore are streamed in Sec­ondary 2. Their per­for­mance in the end-of-year exam­i­na­tions would deter­mine the sub­jects and the lev­el of the sub­jects they are allowed to take in upper Sec­ondary.

Again, with so much on the line for these exam­i­na­tions, we want to come in to com­ple­ment the work done in schools. Stu­dents are encour­aged to explore and deep­en their inter­ests in school. And when they come to us, we pre­pare them for any test and exam­i­na­tion that they might encounter along the way. What we want is to make sure stu­dents are fir­ing on all cylin­ders. Why? Because one of the most defeat­ing and dis­em­pow­er­ing feel­ings is when a stu­dent is inter­est­ed in a sub­ject but that inter­est does not trans­late to grades.

In sum, this arti­cle is a response to the Min­istry of Edu­ca­tions’ new pol­i­cy on remov­ing mid-end exam­i­na­tions for all lev­els of Pri­ma­ry and Sec­ondary school. While we recog­nise the good inten­tions of the min­istry, we are real­ists at heart. At the end of the day, the PSLE and the GCE O and N lev­els con­tin­ue to hold much weight in deter­min­ing a child’s future direc­tion in his/her edu­ca­tion jour­ney. As such, these exam­i­na­tions should not be down­played. Stu­dents should also receive a good amount of coach­ing which puts them in the best pos­si­ble posi­tion for suc­cess.

The removal of mid-end exam­i­na­tions might allow teach­ers to focus on oth­er impor­tant skills. But hon­ing one’s exam-tak­ing skills is impor­tant too. The last thing we want is for stu­dents to enter the exam­i­na­tion hall and be caught with their pants down!