Half the students in his junior college scored an A, putting the 'neighbourhood' school almost on par with Victoria Junior College's 53 per cent.

'I don't see us scoring 50 per cent As for the other subjects,' he says matter-of-factly. 'So I'm not surprised that others are shocked that we did so well for Project Work.'

But the student, who asked that he not be named, isn't complaining as his A grade will count towards his university application.

Since the subject was introduced five years ago, it has attracted controversy of all sorts. Unlike other subjects which are tested at a single sitting, Project Work is graded over a period of time.

Then there are those two examinable components unfamiliar to those who have gone through the 10-year school system here - the project file, making up 20 per cent of the overall grade, and the oral presentation, making up 40per cent.

The other difference: Projects are marked internally by the school's teachers and sometimes by the students' class tutors.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) says teachers have been trained to assess the projects and have to abide by criteria common to all schools.

Teachers are told, for example, to look out for 'analysis and evaluation of ideas' which require students to judge the effectiveness of ideas they propose. Another item is 'generation of ideas' which assesses how students use research or other tools to push their ideas further.

But year after year, parents and students remain unconvinced that the assessors are impartial or that the standards of assessment are uniform across all schools.

Two years ago, students from St Andrew's Junior College, who thought their teachers were too strict in marking, started an online petition for their Project Work results to be reviewed.

They were unhappy that only 41 per cent of the students scored the top two grades of Band1 and 2, compared with the national average of about 77 per cent. (It was a different grading scheme then.)

In a repeat of the incident, Temasek Junior College (TJC) students wrote in to the media last year, complaining about their poor scores.

This year, the issue of 'grade inflation' has been raised in blogs, online forums and in e-mail messages to The Straits Times, with students saying the inconsistency of results in some schools is reason for concern.

For example, the top performers this time include TJC and Raffles Junior College (RJC). Their rankings may not come as a surprise as they are academically strong junior colleges - until last year's results are considered.

TJC scored just 7 per cent distinctions for Project Work last year, but leapt to 87 per cent this year, while RJC doubled its distinction scores to 85 per cent this year.

Grade disparity aside, teachers say the 'detailed assessment guideline' leaves room for subjectivity.

For instance, in assessing oral presentations, one criterion is fluency and clarity. A student who 'speaks clearly and fluently at an appropriate pace' can be awarded five or six points, while one who 'speaks clearly and intelligibly most of the time' gets three or four points and so on. But even with videotaped examples provided by MOE, teachers say they may have differing ideas on fluency.

Teachers say the one- or two-point difference can result in a different grade.

Moderation, which is carried out after all the components are assessed, is random and will make only a slight difference, said one teacher.

Schools that did well in Project Work say their students got higher scores because of greater effort on the part of teachers and students.

TJC's deputy head for Project Work, MsYing Min, says after last year's shock results, there was closer supervision of students and a greater push for creative projects.

Mrs Nirmala Ong, head of Project Work at Hwa Chong Institution, which scored 98 per cent As, maintains that the subject is 'not subjective'. As long as a project meets certain criteria, it gets the marks allotted for those criteria.

That the issue of assessment crops up year after year is an indication that something is amiss.

One suggestion is to have simply a pass/fail grade for the subject or have it not count towards university admission - but the arising concern would likely be that students would not put effort into these projects.

Another idea is to have external markers - that is, teachers from other schools - assess the projects. But MOE says the projects are marked internally as the various subject components are assessed at different points during the year.

So to 'maintain consistency', it would be best marked by the school's own teachers using a common marking guideline.

Still, some way must be found to resolve this issue or the value students stand to gain from Project Work will be diminished by cries of partiality and prejudice.

janeng@sph.com.sg