World Bank East Asia Regional Conference

The Role Of High-stakes Examination in SingaporeYeap Ban Har National Institute of Education
banhar.yeap@nie.edu.sg
Benchmarking Education Systems for Results
East Asia Regional Conference, 21-23 June 2010
Singapore

National Examinations in Singapore
Part 1

Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) at the end of Grade 6 is the only compulsory national examination

General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O Level) at the end of Grade 10

General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A Level) at the end of Grade 12

Generally, examinations are important in determining subsequent educational paths of students. Examination results is not the only determinant but an important one.

How the System Use Examinations Results
Part 2

Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) consists of tests in English Language and mother tongue (written, oral and listening), Mathematics (written) and Science (written)
The Case of Primary School

Three indicators are used by the education system.
There is an indicator for students who have not met the minimum requirement to handle subsequent stage in the education system. This is called the U Grade.

There is an indicator for students who have met the goals of the curriculum. This is called the Pass Grade (C to A*).

There is an indicator for students who have excelled in a subject. This is called the Quality Pass Grade (A or A*).

How the Schools Use Examination Results
Part 3

‘Comparable schools' are schools with students of similar socio-economic and family backgrounds. Schools compare their average to a comparable school and if their average is below that of a comparable school, they know that they need to improve their programme.

Taken from Northland Primary School’s website

Part 4
How Examinations Affect School Programmes

The mathematics examination includes hardly any multiple-choice items - none for Grades 10 and 12 and 20% of the total test score for Grade 6.
The Case of Mathematics

A significant proportion of the tasks are new or complex problems.
The Case of Primary Mathematics

PSLE 2009

PSLE 2009
chocolates
sweets
12
Jim
12
12
12
12
12
18
Ken
3 parts  12 + 12 + 12 + 12 + 18 = 66
1 part  22
Half of the sweets Ken bought = 22 + 12 = 34
So Ken bought 68 sweets.`

Students are expected to reach these standards. Classroom practices are geared towards these - procedural teaching is deemed not effective. Teachers provide higher-order thinking tasks.

Teaching for conceptual understanding is essential to have students do well in such examinations

Teachers find their present competency – content and pedagogical – inadequate and seek professional development.

The system provides professional development structures.

Schools are expected to have Professional Learning Communities by 2012.
There is a Staff Developer in many schools now.

How National Examinations Bring About Changes in Classroom Practices
Conclusion

National examinations demands students to perform challenging tasks.
Trilogy

Teachers include them in the instruction but find existing pedagogy inadequate. They find themselves needing professional development.
Trilogy

There exist within the structure of the system an array of instruments for professional development.
Trilogy

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World Bank East Asia Regional Conference

by Jimmy Keng on Jun 17, 2010

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World Bank East Asia Regional Conference — Presentation Transcript