Indicative secondary school entry scores will be helpful in planning school choices, say parents

SINGAPORE - The indicative secondary school entry scores announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) were welcomed by parents with primary school children, who said it is helpful for them to plan for and shortlist schools that their children can realistically qualify for.

The range of scores, for pupils taking the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) under the new Achievement Level (AL) scoring system next year, were released on Friday (Nov 6). They are based on last year's Primary 6 data.

Schools fall broadly into three categories: government and government-aided, autonomous and independent.

For autonomous schools, the indicative cut-off point for the Express (Integrated Programme) course is 7 to 9, while for independent schools the range is 6 to 8.

The best possible score under the AL system would be 4, meaning a child attains the best AL1 in all four subjects.

But MOE's director-general of education Wong Siew Hoong said on Friday that the indicative cut-off points show that one may not need to get a perfect AL score of 4 to get into some of the popular schools.

Madam Siti Hazlina, 46, who has a son in Primary 5 - the first batch of students to go through the new scoring system - said the indicative scores are reassuring.

She is thinking of enrolling him in Raffles Institution or the NUS High School of Math and Science.

The administrator said her son is good at English, mathematics and science but is weak in his mother tongue language, Tamil.

"When the AL system was announced, we thought that he would be disadvantaged because even if he gets 98 or 100 for his strong subjects, those additional marks would not count for anything, unlike with the T-score system, where it could pull up his aggregate," said Madam Hazlina.

"But now, you only need a cut-off point of 6 to 9 to go to an IP school, which means there's still room for the child to be 'weak' in one subject and learn at his own pace."

Mrs Tina Tan, 45, who also has a son in Primary 5, said the indicative cut-off points will be useful in helping parents work with their children to improve, without the pressure of comparing their grades to other children.

Added Mrs Tan, who works as a freelance parent trainer: "Pupils who used to be forced to get perfect scores every time, and get harshly penalised for getting one or two marks less than expected, would be able to breathe better and feel less stressed."

But some parents like housewife Joanna Tan said there does not seem to be a change in how schools are perceived.

"The only change here is just the scoring system. In fact, the 'better' schools might end up with more students trying to apply for them. Previously, every single mark counts. Now it is different and it doesn't matter if you score 100 or 91 any more," said the 40-year-old, who has a daughter in Primary 1 and son in Primary 5.

She added: "If more children have the same score, there will likely be more balloting. That would be stressful for both parents and children."