Remember when the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced changes to the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) grading system back in 2016, and left parents in a tizzy? Well, they’ve just unveiled more details that will be rolled out in 2021.
The PSLE scoring changes will affect students who are currently in Primary 4 and lower. However, these changes can seem quite confusing if you are not familiar with it. Especially when it comes to figuring out which subjects or subject combinations your child needs to take to get the secondary school of their choice.
To ease your fears, here are seven answers to questions you might have about the upcoming changes:
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Text: Goh Yan Han/The Straits Times
There are four main components to the new announcement:
1. Starting from next year and in all subsequent years, pupils entering Primary 5 will be graded on Achievement Levels (ALs) 1 to 8 instead of the current grades A* to E. Doing this from Primary 5 will allow pupils and parents to become more familiar with the new scoring system for the PSLE, says MOE.
2. It will release the cut-off entry scores for each school using ALs, instead of the current T-score, in the middle of 2021. Usually the entry scores are derived from the previous year’s posting exercise and given to students between October and November.
3. Those who take Foundation-level subjects will know how their scores are graded in the new system. They will receive grades of AL A to C, which are tagged to AL6 to AL8 scores for Standard-level subjects.
4. The eligibility criteria for Higher Mother Tongue. Pupils will need an overall PSLE score of 8 or better to take it up in secondary school. They can also take up Higher Mother Tongue if they have an overall PSLE score of 9 to 14 and attain AL1 or AL2 in their mother tongue or distinction or merit in their higher mother tongue at the PSLE.
For pupils who do not meet the above criteria, secondary schools will have the flexibility to offer Higher Mother Tongue to students assessed to have high ability and interest in mother tongue languages. This is similar to the existing practice.
See an example of a result slip in the graphic below:
There is a need to balance having too many ALs with too few, says MOE. If there are too few ALs, there will be more pupils with the same PSLE score, which will lead to more balloting for Secondary 1 school postings.
The raw mark ranges for the eight ALs offer a good balance, adds MOE. The upper range is narrower to better differentiate pupils’ level of understanding, as a large majority are able to show an understanding of the curriculum and do well in it.
At the middle to lower ALs, wider ranges are sufficient to indicate a pupil’s progress, and further differentiation is less educationally meaningful, says MOE.
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If your child takes at least one Standard subject out of the four, he will still have a chance to qualify for the Express stream, as long as he meets the score criteria.
Additionally, when he enters secondary school, he will be able to take different subjects at different levels, as long as he can manage his academic load.
Pupils should decide to take a subject at Standard or Foundation level depending on their aptitude for and ability in that subject, rather than whether it will help get them into their desired stream, said MOE.
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The Foundation subject grades A to C are pegged to AL6 to AL8. This pegging reflects the fact that the curriculum of a Foundation-level subject is a subset of the Standard-level subject.
The assessment load at Foundation level is less demanding, says MOE. Foundation subjects cater to the learning needs of students so that they can pursue learning at a pace and level that is more suited to them.
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Yes, but only if your child is applying to a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school. If two pupils have the same PSLE score, the one with better Higher Chinese grades will be allocated a place ahead of the other pupil.
This posting advantage applies before the other tie-breakers for Secondary 1 posting. There will be no bonus points under the AL system like there used to be with the T-score system.
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Choice order of schools will be important in the event of a tie. The tie-breakers, barring Higher Chinese grades, are, in order of importance: citizenship, choice order of schools, and computerised balloting.
Previously, choice order of schools did not matter as an unrounded T-score aggregate – down to decimal places – was used to determine which child would get in ahead of the other.
This tie-breaker recognises the different considerations that pupils and parents have in making school choices, such as a school’s ethos, culture, programmes and co-curricular activities offered.
In the next few months, schools will be engaging parents and pupils who will undergo the new PSLE scoring system to guide them in making informed decisions, particularly in their subject choices at the end of Primary 4.
More details on the PSLE scoring changes and Secondary 1 posting system are also available on MOE’s website.
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