Some events that happened in SG education system in the past few years
1) SAT required for Uni entry
- happened at a time where many US Unis are considering to scrape SAT as entry
- then it was scraped => But how many students have had their money and time wasted as a result of taking it? Some took twice in order to score better.
2) Science Practical
- you get penalised if question the examiner on the exam paper
- UK and HK has already scraped this policy on Science Practical many years ago
- So what will happen when students cannot understand the exam paper? Is a science practical test a test of practical skills or a test of understanding the paper?
3) Performance Based System
- Teachers are given bonus based on performance
- Private informer told me that it is compulsory for 5% of sch teachers to be given D grade, a grade that has no bonus.
- Office politics is already rampant among teachers within some schools. This system will definitely not served to make teachers improve in their teaching skills and knowledge, but rather, encourage fiercer office politics to take place. Teachers who can teach well but not play office politics well will never be able to shine properly.
I respect the Ministry for their continued efforts to learn from other people's examples so as to achieve a world class standard of education.
There are many experiments going on all over the world to improve the educational systems and some have failed while others have succeeded.
I think SATS arose because of the discrepancies in the quality of education and grading of students by the various state schools. This resulted in student grades becoming an reliable indicative. This forced universities to require a separate entrance exam as positions were limited. I agree that SATS was not relevant to our system and should be removed.
I don't remember much about science practicals.
I agree with your point 3. It has proven to be a nightmare in the States. While the concept is good, the execution may prove impossible.
Edited to remove quotes