PSLE — Nothing more than a one-time tool

The PSLE Results Release was a day of many emotions for those who had given much towards what many would consider to be the first rite of passage in every Singaporean life.

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a core memory, regardless of how one has scored, because it is a crossroads with many possible paths.

Everyone hopes to start off their once-in-a-lifetime journey in the right direction or perhaps even on the best path. And in the past 60 years, the PSLE has been an administrative system that facilitates this process.

But today, this system has been revamped for a new generation of students. Pandemic-induced anxieties aside, there is still plenty for us, parents and the community at large, to reconcile the use and meaning of a PSLE score.

PSLE: Why does it exist?

In an ideal world, there will be enough resources to attend to the needs and wants of every growing child. But the reality is less utopian - every secondary school only has a finite number of places, and so not every child can have the benefit of going to the school of their first choice.

A system like the PSLE acknowledges this reality - it fulfils a utilitarian desire to get as many students to where they choose to be in to continue their growth. How it does so involves a score that seemingly reflects the aptitude of each student relative to their peers.

Some will have to settle for their less desired choices in this system. For myself, with a score of 196, I was not able to secure a place at Bendemeer Secondary School, which was within walking distance from my home, but was instead posted to my second choice, Outram Secondary School.

To earn this privilege of choosing first, each student has to score better relative to their peers. And therein lies the all too familiar, stressful game.

PSLE: The Familiar, Stressful Game

A three-digit number on a piece of paper. It looks arbitrary, but the old system is based on a bell-curve, and so it invites comparisons amongst peers. If I have a higher score than you, I am, by the rules of the game, supposedly better than you.

And this result rewards me by allowing me to choose my next school before you. This hierarchy is painfully clear even for those who scored well enough to get to their school of choice.This perception might be induced by the fact that the result slip also includes the highest and lowest scores of that cohort.

There are always plenty of emotions associated with the release of PSLE results and the journey of working toward it, and there is one universal feeling that binds all parties - stress.

Students and parents feel particularly stressed because every PSLE can feel like do-or-die. If a student scores relatively low, the system may determine that they may require an additional year within the secondary school system or that one may be unsuitable for their preferred choice of school. We do not need to imagine what this does to one's perception of self-worth, because there are plenty of personal stories at hand - just ask your immediate friends and family.

When I received my 196, my result slip gave me the option to choose either the Express or Normal (Academic) stream. Naturally, I only looked at schools that could accept me in the Express stream to avoid the one year extension.

Yet if you asked me if that was a moment of disappointment or stress - I would not say it was. My personal journey was imbued with a parental enforced belief that doing one's best is good enough and one's score is not indicative of one's value.

Speaking of which, schools and teachers are also stressed, because such scores may be used as an indication of their perceived value and performance. And when there are over 200 possible aggregates in the original T-score system, it is easy to judge who is better - once again, based on the rules of the game.

Therefore, a change to how the scores are calculated within the game, motivated by the desire to bring the system closer to its true intentions, is worthy of appreciation - both for its boldness and also its potential effects on our communities.

PSLE 2.0: New Rules, New Stress

In the old system, schools are options on a tall and narrow shelf. Schools perched on the upper tiers and out of reach to most students are deemed to be 'elite'. They also dictate how the schools below them may be perceived.

While that may seem like a natural conclusion, devaluing relatively lower tiered schools can also be argued as self-induced - there is a belief that while there may be many possible 'right' paths, each student deserves the 'best' path instead.

And as the definition of 'best' is subjective, it is easier to refer to the tiers of the shelf and conclude that the higher the school, the better it is.

Hence, stress is derived from the climb up to one's desired tier of schools, followed by the consideration of schools within one's grasp, and finally from the confirmation of school placement which may feel like a sealing of one's fate.

But in the new system, the shelf will be short and wide. There are 29 possible aggregates in the new scoring system, and schools will indicate a range of scores for their respective streams. So theoretically, even though a tiered system is still present, the stress from the climb should be reduced.

However, this pioneer batch may find it difficult to experience this, because stress comes from many sources, and a particularly unique challenge for them is how to reconcile the disparity in the values we used to attach to the grades of the old system and how one might perceive the Achievement Level (AL) bands of the new. This is especially so when what used to be grade A (a score of 75-90) is now split into AL 2, 3 and 4.

AL4 may not give a sense of achievement that a grade A provides, and students will therefore be inclined to feel disappointed and respond accordingly - an effect that would be counter to why this change was implemented in the first place.

The argument made was that the Ministry of Education expects around half of the cohort to score above 75 for their subjects, thus making it necessary for finer differentiation in this score range. Only time will tell if this is the right call.

What to make of all this

"Every school is a good school," is an idealistic thinking that has been marred by lagging changes and beliefs within the education system that contradicts such a statement. And so it is reasonable for people to be skeptical or even cynical on whether the new PSLE system will be better for students.

Note that the only intention of the score within the game is to get students into their school of choice. Any other value attributed to the score is either self-constructed or peer-induced, and practically meaningless.

The scoring mechanics of the game have now changed, and the intentions have rightfully remained the same. The only variables left are how will our interpretation of the AL bands change over time and how schools can take advantage of the 'short wide shelf' to advocate their value beyond PSLE scores.

In that process, I hope that we can take this rare opportunity to reaffirm that a PSLE score is a one time metric used to estimate a child's aptitude and be placed in the right environment for their next phase in life.

And that there is more than one right environment, and the 'best' environment is subjective, but getting into it will not guarantee future successes. The only action of real value is what one does in their new environment.

So, use the PSLE score however you will, choose well and make peace with it. Because this score will have no further meaning and value to anyone come January.