The Ministry of Education (MOE) released yesterday a range of secondary school entry scores for pupils taking the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) under the new scoring system next year.
The indicative cut-off scores, based on last year's Primary 6 data, will help guide pupils in their school choices and indicate which schools are possibly within their reach.
Schools fall broadly into three categories: government and government-aided, autonomous and independent.
This year's Primary 5 cohort will be graded next year using the new PSLE scoring system, which was first announced in 2016.
It will assess them on the basis of their individual performance in subjects, regardless of how their peers have done.
Pupils will be given achievement levels - AL 1 to AL 8 - for each subject, instead of grades like A* to E. A pupil's total PSLE score will be the sum of the ALs of the four subjects. The best score one can get is four, if the grade is AL 1 for all four subjects.
At a virtual briefing yesterday, MOE said it generated the indicative AL cut-off point ranges for different school types based on the PSLE results and school choice patterns of pupils last year.
The indicative AL cut-offs for individual secondary schools will be released in the first half of next year, based on the results and school choices of this year's PSLE cohort.
For now, the MOE said the score ranges by school types are meant to provide a broad sense of secondary schools' cut-off points and help contextualise the end-of-school examination results for this year's Primary 5 pupils, who will soon receive their grades in the new AL format this year.
There are 135 government and government-aided schools, 28 of which are autonomous schools, like Anderson Secondary School, Crescent Girls' School and Victoria School. There are eight independent schools, and these include Raffles Institution and Nanyang Girls' High School.
For autonomous schools, the indicative cut-off point range for the Express (Integrated Programme) course is seven to nine, while for independent schools, the range is six to eight.
For government and government-aided schools, the cut-off point ranges from eight to 22 for the Express (O level) track, 22 to 25 for Normal (Academic), and 26 to 30 for Normal (Technical).
Similar to the current T-score system, these cut-off points could vary from year to year.
Secondary schools affiliated to primary schools will continue to have two sets of cut-off points next year for affiliated and non-affiliated pupils. Those admitted through Direct School Admission are also not included in the calculation of cut-off points, as is the case now.
MOE also gave an update yesterday on the criteria needed for Secondary 1 Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) students to take subjects like English language or mathematics at a higher level, which is now also possible under subject-based banding.
Under the new PSLE scoring system, this will be decided by the students' AL score for that particular subject. For instance, if they attain AL 5 or better in a Standard-level subject at PSLE, they will be eligible to take the subject at the Express level in Secondary 1.
Mr Wong Siew Hoong, director-general of education at MOE, encouraged parents and students to select schools based on overall learning needs, instead of vying for those they perceive to be most popular. "It is about their overall talent and interest, distance from home, the fit for the child," he said.
The indicative cut-off points have also shown that one may not need to get a perfect AL score of four to get into popular schools, contrary to what some parents thought when the new scoring system was first announced.
Mr Wong also stressed that students and parents do not need to rush to shortlist schools. "From Primary 5 to Primary 6, there is still one year of potential growth possible, and students will grow."
He added: "The PSLE is an important milestone... It will invariably cause some anxiety because we are human. But we hope that our Primary 5 students and their parents will continue to enjoy learning.
"That is the most important."
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