To do away with the Primary School Leaving Examination would be to dismantle an objective and fair way of allocating pupils to their secondary schools (Three shifts in education beliefs to become the future economy; Feb 15).

Although all schools are good schools, some are invariably better than others.

How many parents would be comfortable with their children being allocated to secondary schools based purely on non-academic factors, such as their home location, school affiliation, co-curricular activity or parental connection?

It would be a precarious and subjective system.

Doing away with streaming also benefits no one, as smarter pupils will not be stretched to their fullest potential, while mediocre pupils will struggle to catch up in class.

Streaming creates a learning environment that suits the child. The current system also allows hard-working pupils to transfer to a better stream.

What we need is, fundamentally, a mindset change.

If not, then no matter how the system is tweaked, parents will find one way or another to provide their children with an edge over others, creating unnecessary pressure.

Don Ho Jia Hao