SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education will implement full subject-based banding (SBB) in secondary schools by 2024, Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung announced on Tuesday (Mar 5). This will replace the existing system of streaming students into the Express, Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) streams based on their PSLE results.
SBB, which allows students to take subjects at different levels according to their abilities, was first prototyped in 12 secondary schools in 2014. At the time, students posted to the Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams could take English, Mathematics, Science or Mother Tongue Languages at a higher level from Secondary 1, if they performed well in these subjects at the PSLE.
AdvertisementThis was later rolled out to all secondary schools in 2018, MOE said.
Speaking during his ministry’s Committee of Supply debate, he said that streaming, which was implemented more than three decades ago, has successfully reduced school attrition rates from about a third of every cohort to less than 1 per cent currently. But he also noted that there are downsides to streaming.
“In its original form, streaming assumed that students needed a certain pace of learning in all their subjects, whereas many students, in fact, have uneven strengths across different subjects,” he said.
“More importantly, entering a stream that is considered ‘lower’ can carry a certain stigma or be self-limiting,” he added. “Students can develop a mindset where they tell themselves, ‘I am only a Normal stream student, so this is as good as I can be.’ It becomes self-fulfilling.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAccording to MOE, about 60 per cent of Secondary 1 students in the Normal (Technical) stream, and 40 per cent of students in the Normal (Academic) stream took subjects at a higher level.
Mr Ong added that the results of those students who participated in SBB in the pilot schools show that Normal and Express stream students perform comparably in the O-Level examinations. For example, 25 per cent of Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) students who took O-Level English got an A1 or A2, compared to 24 per cent for express students.
“The Normal stream students have held their own, and our surveys also showed that students, parents and teachers overwhelmingly welcome it,” he said.
“We are now ready to take a further, major move."
Mr Ong said that from next year, about 25 schools will implement full SBB, with more schools joining in the subsequent years.
Students entering Secondary 1 in 2024 – corresponding to this year’s Primary 2 cohort - will be the first full batch of students to go through the new system.
Upon entering Secondary 1, they will be able to take a combination of subjects at three different levels based on their PSLE scores: General 1, General 2 and General 3. These three levels are mapped from the current Normal (Technical), Normal (Academic) and Express standards respectively.
The system is similar to how students taking the A-Levels offer subjects at H1, H2 and H3 levels, and how PSLE students take subjects at Standard or Foundation level, MOE said.
Full SBB will allow lower secondary school students to study more subjects at a higher level – not just English, Mother Tongue Language, Maths and Science, but also others, such as Geography, History, and Literature, Mr Ong said.
“As it may be difficult to ascertain the level suitable for students using just their PSLE results, MOE and schools will develop guidelines and assessment mechanisms, including using Secondary One year-end examinations,” he added.
ONE COMMON NATIONAL EXAM TO REPLACE N-, O-LEVELS
MOE will also consolidate the existing GCE N- and O-Level examinations into a new common national examination and certification framework. Students will receive a single national certification which reflects the level at which each subject is taken.
The new national examination and certification framework will take effect when the 2024 Secondary 1 cohort reaches Secondary 4.
Mr Ong said that this will reflect the reality of full SBB as a more flexible, single course. Singapore and Cambridge, he said, will co-brand this new certificate, as both are “strong international brand names in education”, which will “enhance the recognition and value of the certificate.”
Beyond academic aspects, Mr Ong added that the new system would give schools the opportunity to reshape the social environment to benefit their students. He cited examples of schools such as Boon Lay Secondary, which organises its form classes by CCAs, and Edgefield Secondary, which has re-organised its form classes to include students from all three streams.
"The pioneering practices such as in Boon Lay and Edgefield will become the norm," he said.
“With full SBB implemented, form classes re-organised across the board and a common secondary education certificate, we would have effectively merged Express, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams into a single course,” he added. “The Express, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams, together with their labels, will therefore be phased out.”
“So from three education streams, we will now have ‘One secondary education, many subject bands’," he said.
“We will no longer have fishes swimming down three separate streams, but one broad river, with each fish negotiating its own journey.”
Let's block ads! (Why?)
More...