Hmm just finished doing notes on History. So I was studying Confucianism. Education. I thought I would just type down this random thought of mine.

Recently, there has been debate about the education system in Singapore. PSLE, secondary school ranking system, bilingual policy, pre-school education etc. All closely related to me. At the centre of it all is the topic on exams. The government thinks PSLE is giving students too much stress. Some people feel that PSLE should be abolished while others feel that the importance of it can be substantially reduced.

I have always felt that the education system in Singapore is much too rigid and exam-focused. I recall vividly that in the months following up to PSLE last year, we were given tons of practise papers to do on all subjects, just to drill us so that we can get extremely familiar with the format of the exams. I remember complaining to my friends, “Practise paper, practise paper, practise paper! We have been doing that since the beginning of the year! Can’t teacher stop giving it?” I was getting sick of it all because we were never taught new things for two whole terms before PSLE and all we did was revise on the things we learnt for the past 6 years. I have always loved learning new things and I hated it all, even though most of us eventually endured those months and aced this national exam.

During that time, I really found going to school really pointless. The teachers only focused on imparting us exam techniques and giving us multiple practices for each component of the paper.

Such an exam would not in the least bit prepare students for the workplace in the future, except for the stress it generates. In this exam, students are not encouraged to read beyond their syllabus and find out more on that topic on their own. Many students would just learn what is in their textbooks and notes since that is the only thing needed to ace the exams.

Even so, I feel that PSLE cannot be abolished as it is an important tool to assess a student who has been educated for 6 years. Also, it has to be used to determine which secondary school the student will go to in the future. One suggestion I have is to not change the format for the exams annually so that it is not fixed. Also, only topics that will be tested and guidelines on how much a candidate should know should be released. The information needed should be researched by the candidate himself. This will widen the scope tested and allow for flexibility of thinking. Also, candidates would be able to rely on their general knowledge gained from ordinary lives.