FAQ on Secondary 1 posting results
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Primary 6 pupils sat their PSLE under a new scoring system this year.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Calvin Yang, Clara Chong
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SINGAPORE - More than four in five Primary 6 pupils who sat the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) under the new scoring system this year were posted to a secondary school within their first three choices, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Wednesday (Dec 22). Here are some common questions on the Secondary 1 posting exercise.
Q: With the new PSLE scoring and Secondary 1 posting systems, has MOE observed any changes in the choices made by pupils and parents?
A: Choice patterns have remained broadly similar under the new system. The PSLE score ranges for secondary schools for the PSLE cohort this year are largely comparable to the indicative PSLE score ranges based on last year's cohort. Likewise, the schools' cut-off points for this year have remained largely stable compared with the indicative cut-off points for last year.
Q: How is the cut-off point for each secondary school determined?
A: The PSLE score range of a school is the PSLE score of the first and last student admitted to the school, and the cut-off point is the score of the last student admitted to the school. Schools' PSLE score ranges are not pre-determined by MOE or schools, and may vary each year depending on the cohort's PSLE results and their school choices in that year's posting exercise.
Q: What is the highest cut-off point for Integrated Programme (IP) schools? Is this a pre-determined cut-off point?
A: The cut-off point for each secondary school course is not pre-determined by MOE or schools before the posting. It depends on the cohort's PSLE results and their school choices in that year's posting exercise. The cut-off points of the last students posted to the IP schools this year ranged from 6 to 9 (Merit for Higher Chinese language).
Q: What is the incidence of tie-breaking for citizenship, school choice order and computerised balloting? How does this compare with previous years?
A: The overall proportion of students who underwent computerised balloting was around one in 10, and the proportion of students who were posted to one of their six school choices remained consistent with the past years, at above 90 per cent. Similar to the previous T-score system, tie-breaking applied to a minority of students. Most students who required tie-breaking were sorted by citizenship and school choice order.
Q: Will MOE consider appeals more favourably this year, given that this is the first year the new posting system is in effect? Must students meet the school's cut-off point to appeal for a school transfer?
A: Similar to previous years, students who wish to appeal for a school transfer due to non-medical reasons must meet the school's cut-off point for that posting year.
Admitting students who do not meet the cut-off point under appeals would not be fair to the students who obtained a similar or better PSLE Score, but had failed to obtain a place in the school through the posting exercise.
Similar to previous years, MOE emphasised that all appeals will continue to be subject to vacancies, even if the student's score meets the school's cut-off point.
