PSLE will stay as an important benchmark of students' achievements: Heng Swee Keat

By Amelia Teng, The Straits Times, 4 May 2014

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is here to stay, said Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Sunday.

"We're not about to abolish it," he said, adding that the PSLE is an important in setting a local and international benchmark for what 12-year-olds can achieve.

Rather, the change to use letter grades instead of precise scores, which had been announced last year, is a way to plan for the next stage of a student's learning journey, he said, in response to a question posed to him at The Straits Times' inaugural Education Forum.

By using these grades, students who do well in particular subjects can take the same subject in secondary school at a higher level. "It's really how we regard (the exam)," he said, whether parents see it as a "do-or-die" high-stakes exam or one of the many checkpoints in life.

Mr Heng encouraged the 300-strong audience at the Singapore Management University's Mochtar Riady Auditorium to instead focus on the "intangibles" of education, like character and socio-emotional development. Getting the academic foundation right is important for children, but parents' conversations with their children must go beyond grades and exams, he said.

"It is our responsibility as parents and an education system to bring out the best in every child," he added, and his Ministry is committed to ensure that every school provides opportunities for children to do that.

The goal, he said, is to "help every child succeed, not just in school... but to succeed in life, not just in career, but in own lives, so they can go on to lead happy, meaningful and fulfilling lives," he said.

At the hour-long dialogue session moderated by Straits Times' editor Warren Fernandez, parents posed questions on a range of issues, from the relevance of streaming and the reason behind not naming the top scorers of national examinations to home-schooling and special education.

Heng sticking to his guns over not naming top scorers
By Amelia Teng, The Straits Times, 5 May 2014

EDUCATION Minister Heng Swee Keat is sticking to his guns about not naming the top scorers of national examinations, including the PSLE.

Focusing on top scorers reinforces the mistaken notion among some parents that "education equals grades", he told a 300-strong audience made up mostly of parents, at The Straits Times' inaugural Education Forum yesterday.

But the success of many people out there, including businessmen and chief executives he has met, depends on other key qualities besides academic ability, said Mr Heng at venue partner Singapore Management University.

The half-day event at the Mochtar Riady Auditorium offered insights on how children can succeed and featured speakers such as Professor Andrew Martin of the University of New South Wales, an expert in academic motivation.

Mr Stanz Tan, POSB expert, who is vice-president of Bancassurance, gave advice on how to save up for children's education. POSB was the presenting sponsor.

At the forum's dialogue session, chaired by Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez, parents asked Mr Heng about issues ranging from the relevance of streaming to home-schooling. One asked about the decision not to name top scorers.

Mr Heng said in reply that in his 27 years of public service before entering politics, he came across many top performers at their jobs who did not have top grades. While heading the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he met many bank chief executives from non-brand name colleges.

"A lot of their learning goes beyond exams and grades. These are very smart people, but they also have a whole range of qualities in them that makes them such effective leaders," he added. These include being willing to take risks or learn new skills.

"Excellence, hard work - those remain very important qualities," he said. "But if you look at the top students, that difference between that one mark makes very little difference in life."

The Education Ministry had announced in 2012 that it would no longer name the top scorers of national examinations here, in an effort to balance out the "over-emphasis on academic results".

Mr Heng, who stressed that his decision to keep mum on top scorers will stay for now, said: "It's a way for me to recalibrate the system, to say other things matter, and matter greatly too."

Focus on the "intangibles" of education, such as character, values and socio-emotional development, he told parents. Getting the academic foundation right is important for children, but conversations with them must go beyond grades and exams, he said.

The decision might be reversed later "when we're all ready", he said. "I'm quite certain that several years down the road, another education minister will come along and say, name the top PSLE student."

Changes to PSLE, but exam will stay: Heng
By Amelia Teng, The Straits Times, 5 May 2014

DESPITE a recent Straits Times survey that found that one in four Singaporeans think the country can do without the Primary School Leaving Examination, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat says the national exam will stay.

His ministry is working out the details of changes being made - like replacing precise T-scores with letter grades - but the exam will not be abolished.

Speaking at The Straits Times' inaugural Education Forum yesterday at the Singapore Management University, Mr Heng said the exam for 12-year-olds sets a local and international benchmark for what pupils can achieve at that age.

"It's really how we regard (the exam)," he said - whether parents see it as a "do-or-die" high-stakes assessment.

"But if we see it as one of the many checkpoints in our learning journey, then it's much less stressful," he said.

"The different exams really serve this purpose - to see if you have reached this particular milestone, to see if you have mastered a particular competency."

And by using their PSLE grades, Normal stream students who do well in a particular subject can take the same subject at the Express level from Secondary 1.

This initiative to allow students to build on their strengths and interests in certain subjects, started in 12 schools this year.

"(It) allows us to then plan for the next stage of the learning journey," said Mr Heng at the event.

Such efforts are part of the Education Ministry's plans to create an "open learning system" in secondary schools, he added.

'Doing too much for child could do harm'
Heng: Parents need to learn when to let go, and give child space to grow
By Feng Zengkun, The Straits Times, 5 May 2014

THERE is a very fine line between caring and caring too much, and parents should be careful not to mollycoddle their children.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat made this point yesterday at the inaugural Straits Times Education Forum, in answer to a question about whether Singapore children belonged to a "strawberry generation".

In a wide-ranging dialogue with parents that lasted more than an hour, he also outlined his ministry's thinking on issues such as why every school must be made a good school, and how to motivate and get the best out of weaker students.

While every school would strive to bring out the best in each child, this did not mean all schools would attain the same academic results. Parents, he said, knew from experience that each of their own children was different, with their own strengths and needs.

He noted that many caring parents hanker after top schools, but reminded them that a child's social and emotional skills, values and character also matter. He said these things cannot be easily assessed or measured but they are important to thriving in an uncertain and changing world.

He also stressed the point that all children learn differently and at different paces. Some will learn faster in certain areas, some learn better when things are very abstract, some learn better when the learning approach is very hands-on, he said.

He pledged that Singapore's schools will try to cater to every student and bring out the best in them. Education, he said, was not about chasing that additional point or grade, but learning for life.

Punctuating the session with real-life anecdotes from his interactions with parents and teachers, Mr Heng said one parent had e-mailed him to complain that her Primary 5 daughter had not been allowed to take a mobile phone to a one-night school camp.

"She said that ever since her daughter was a baby she had kissed the kid goodnight every night... and the child sleeps better after that," said Mr Heng.

While the parent pointed out that the phone would be useful in an emergency, the teacher had taken down all of the parents' phone numbers, as well as given her own to them, he said.

"I thought that was quite a reasonable arrangement," he added.

Another parent had considered retiring early to accompany her son when he went overseas for university studies.

"I said, 'let him go', but she told me I didn't understand and that he was her only son," Mr Heng said. "In the end, I asked her, 'Do you want grandchildren? Because with you around, he might never get a girlfriend!'" he continued, drawing laughter from the audience.

On a more serious note, Mr Heng said a secondary school principal had recently expressed concern that teachers were doing too much for children, for example, by giving them too many notes to prepare them for exams.

"One of the things that get lost along the way is this sense of independence and self-direction," he said. "When you do too many things, the child becomes too dependent on you."

Asked whether children today were protected too much, he said: "I'm not in a position to say definitively whether this is a strawberry generation," he said, referring to people who are easily bruised and unable to take criticism. "There's a very thin line between caring and caring too much... (but) I don't have a formula to say what is the right thing. How to calibrate that is very much people's independent decision," he said.

EDUCATION MINISTER HENG SWEE KEAT ON...

Parenting

This morning, I asked my son and said to him: I'm going to talk to parents about parenting. I'll be very embarrassed if you say something like 'you could have been a far better dad', so better tell me now before you go and post on your Facebook.

And his answer is: Well, I think I am who I am. I think I'm all right, and you are all right. Don't be so kan cheong (Hokkien for "anxious")!

So I think maybe I've done something right, in that not overdoing certain things, giving them some space to grow and be themselves.

Teamwork

Increasingly, at work, the ability and willingness to work with people... to collaborate are so important. For example, in our medical schools, at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, our latest medical school, students are no longer just graded on their individual exams and performance.

The medical schools recognise that if you want to be a good doctor, you always have to work with a team. From Day 1, a large part of students' learning is done together in a team and a large part of their grades is a team grade.

It makes a lot of sense - if you're going to save a patient, invariably, a whole team of doctors will work on it. It's whether all the doctors together succeed in saving a patient. If you think about it, that's how a lot of the work of the future is going to take place.

To motivate kids, know what makes them tick, say experts
By Feng Zengkun, The Straits Times, 5 May 2014

BREAK up schoolwork into bite-size chunks, set short-term and personal best goals and allow boys who have naturally shorter attention spans to take breaks.

While girls may do better in school, they are also more prone to anxiety about their grades and may not bounce back from academic setbacks as easily as boys.

Education experts shared these and more tips and insights with parents at yesterday's inaugural Straits Times Education Forum, sponsored by POSB.

Held at venue partner Singapore Management University, 300 people - many with children in primary and secondary school - showed up to learn about topics such as saving for their children's education and how to boost the little ones' confidence in school.

They also got to share their stories, air concerns and seek help from experts in a Q&A session.

Child motivation expert Andrew Martin, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, broke down the psychology and habits of students who do well into "the 5 Cs of academic buoyancy". These are: confidence in themselves, believing they have control over their grades rather than blaming "tough marking" or other factors, commitment or persistence, coordination or planning ahead, and composure or the ability to manage stress.

Parents can help their children to overcome fears or obstacles only if they know what makes up the child's motivation or lack thereof, said Professor Martin.

"Students don't wake up one morning feeling disengaged," he said. "We need to look at the factors leading to them giving up and address those factors."

Children who fear failure, for example, may disguise this by procrastinating or not trying at all, "which is better for their self-esteem".

Ms Genevieve Chye, principal of the all-boys Montfort Junior School, spoke about ways to motivate boys, in response to a question. Boys are competitive, she said. "We use competition positively, for example by dividing them into groups and awarding them points," she added.

She also noted that "the attention span of a boy in primary school is all of seven minutes", adding: "If you're wondering why your boy starts fidgeting after 10 minutes and needs to walk around, he doesn't have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He just needs to move around."

To parents' concerns that their children were spending too much time on gadgets such as their phones or computers, Ms Chye quipped that "the very quick answer is to take it away", drawing laughs from the parents.

On a more serious note, she said: "You really have to have limits and draw boundaries. It's not about being authoritarian, it's about being authoritative. There is also the issue of role-modelling. How many of us as adults are always on our phones?"

Mr David Hoe, 26, a former Normal (Technical) student who overcame major odds to attain his current undergraduate place at the National University of Singapore, said a group of Christian friends set him on the right path.

"Parents will want to know who their child is hanging out with, and I encourage that. But they have to do it in a way that's casual, like encouraging their kids to invite friends home.

"If they intrude into their children's lives, this may risk turning the kids against them," he said.

POSB expert Stanz Tan, who is vice-president of Bancassurance, outlined several ways parents could save for their children's education and urged them to consider factors such as how many years they have before their children apply to universities.

He highlighted a survey by insurer Aviva: "It found that 93 per cent of parents said tertiary education is very important, but one in four said they had not saved enough for their children's education, particularly for university."

Prof Martin said parents should also set aside time for themselves. In a 2010 survey, more than eight in 10 children said their parents' stress bothered them.

"So you should exercise, spend time on your hobbies and with your partner and connect with friends," he said.

Why PSLE should stay

I APPLAUD Education Minister Heng Swee Keat's decision to keep the Primary School Leaving Examination ("Changes to PSLE, but exam will stay: Heng"; May 5).

The hot-button issue has been debated by parliamentarians, educators and parents. To me, the PSLE was a rite of passage. It is an important milestone for pupils to gauge their academic abilities.

Some may argue that the exam is unfair to late bloomers. There are, however, plenty of Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) students who did well enough in Secondary 1 to progress to the next higher stream.

Our education system allows late bloomers to develop at their own pace.

It has also enabled students to achieve outstanding results globally. For example, Singapore's 15-year-olds recently emerged top in problem-solving in the Programme for International Student Assessment ("S'pore teens ranked No. 1 in problem solving"; April 2).

We should not abolish a rigorous exam that has served us well, just to pacify some parents who wish to protect their children from stress.

Parents need to ask themselves what is causing stress for their children. More often than not, it is the tuition classes that parents enrol their children in.

Postponing major exams does not solve the problem; students will eventually have to take the O or A levels.

Teaching children how to cope with stress is the solution. Our 12-year-olds will become young adults; they need to learn how to manage the tasks they are assigned at work. If schools do not prepare them for this, what will?

Muhammad Hafiz Sudir, 16, Secondary 4 student
ST Forum, 14 May 2014