A nail-biting year of home-based learning, Zoom lessons and prepping for the PSLE examinations during Covid-19 is finally over. But with the release of PSLE scores from Nov 25-27, it’s time to seriously consider a secondary school that’s ideal for your child’s needs.
As a start, here’s a basic guide to the new scoring system set by the Ministry of Education, and how the new indicative entry points could impact your choice.
The information was derived from the 2019 Primary 6 cohort’s Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results and school choices.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) first simulated each pupil’s individual subject score in AL terms, based on their raw subject scores. The AL scores were added to form a pupil’s total PSLE score. It then simulated their posting outcomes based on the new Secondary 1 posting system and its tie-breakers.
The indicative AL cut-off point for each school was determined by the PSLE score of the last student admitted.
Based on the score of the last student admitted, the lowest and the highest cut-off points of schools within each school type were used to obtain the range.
The actual cut-off point for a school can vary yearly, as this depends on PSLE results and school choice patterns of each Primary 6 cohort.
The first batch of pupils under the new system will soon receive their Primary 5 end-of-year examination results in the AL format.
MOE said that releasing indicative cut-off point ranges by school types would provide pupils some context to where they might stand.
The indicative AL cut-off points for each secondary school will be released in the first half of next year. These will be based on data from this year’s PSLE cohort, which would be most recent.
The AL bands, on the whole, have been deliberately designed to be wider, therefore more schools will likely have the same AL cut-off.
Parents and students are encouraged to look beyond the schools’ cut-off points when choosing a secondary school, MOE said. They should consider the student’s learning needs, interests, strengths and aspirations, along with the school’s culture, environment, ethos and programmes.
MOE added that parents and students should bear in mind that the order of choice of schools will be a tie-breaker from next year onwards.
Text: The Straits Times