The Singapore Commentator

After the hue and cry on the PSLE science paper, it turns out that students’ scores released yesterday were not too bad after all. Excerpt of a Channel NewsAsia report.

PSLE science scores comparable to previous years
Despite outcries from parents and students that this year's PSLE science paper was particularly difficult, the Education Ministry says 91 percent of students scored A* to C. The figure is the same as in the last two years. The Ministry explains the grading of a paper takes into account various factors, including the Chief Examiner's report, performance of the cohort, difficulty of the paper and past trends.

According to a report in The Straits Times, many of those who achieved high scores in the exam were those whose parents had written to the newspaper to complain that it was too difficult. And at least one of them appears to remain unrepentant about raising the fuss.

[E]ducational consultant Grace Yong...whose letter to the Straits Times’ Forum page sparked an avalanche of responses, felt that the good results did not overturn the fact that many children had been “traumatised” by the exam. Her son...got an A for science, similar to the grade in his preliminary exams.

As I mentioned previously, the nub of the problem may be in the implementation of the new syllabus rather than in the syllabus itself or the difficulty of the exam. If so, then, considering that the government likes to change the educational system frequently, hopefully this lesson on change management is put to good use.