Give students a chance to prove themselves till GCE O-level!

When I heard over the news yesterday that the Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE) would be doing away with examinations for Primary 1 and 2, I thought that was truly incredible. Frankly, many suggestions of this nature to help lower primary students and parents cope with their children's studies have always been falling on deaf ears it seems, but surprisingly, this time round, they get heard. But, I think more should have been done and should be done.

There is no need to have Primary 4 streaming. This has "killed" many students from age 10 psychologically and mentally. They have been stigmatised since young with the "cannot study" label by their peers. Despite occasional publicity of one or two ITE students who are doing well later in life, majority have been inflicted with inferiority complex since young. Though officially there is no more streaming now, but some schools are still segregating their students the way it used to be.

If there is a dire need to retain this tradition of streaming the students, do it the positive way. Identify those fast and advanced learners, say the top 20% of the entire cohort and offer them special and advanced programmes, leave the rest intact. This top 20% of the cohort will be offered programmes like Higher Mother Tongue, Advanced Science, Advanced Mathematics, Higher English etc, since they are academically more capable!!! Important thing is leave them a choice to decide if they want to be on board these programmes.

At the same time, bear in mind that there are students who are late developers. In the past, have we not seen students who did not do too well in primary levels but when promoted to secondary schools, they started doing very well? Why set the limit, fix their destiny and decide their future on their behalf, when they are just aged 10? Isn't it very unfair and too imposing? Frankly, I think it is very detrimental to their psychological well-being and their future.

Against this backdrop, I think the MOE should consider allowing all students to progress straight through to GCE O-level. This will ensure that all children receive the basic education, basic enough for them to find a job when they graduate. With the O-level results, the students can then be offered places in ITE, Polytechnics or Junior Colleges depending on their academic performance or personal preference, and those whose results do not qualify them for entry into any of these learning institutions could decide for themselves their own future.