Channel NewsAsia - 50 minutes ago
SINGAPORE: Academic excellence is not the only key performance indicator (KPI) for schools, Minister for Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in Parliament on Tuesday.
Responding to MPs’ calls on tracking schools’ performances and keeping sight of broader outcomes in education, he said his ministry is mindful of keeping a balance when defining its KPIs in education.
Mr Tharman said some of the most important things highlighted by the MPs, such as character building and racial integration, are values that cannot be measured; and so is the balance between encouraging and challenging students to do better.
He was responding to a question over an incident at the start of the school year when the principal of a girls’ school told a group of Secondary 5 students they should go to an Institute of Technical Education as they were unlikely to do well in the O—Levels at year’s end.
Public feedback to this incident was divided as to whether such straight—talking would demoralise the students and affect their confidence or spur them to do better.
He explained how he sees the issue: "Different schools have different methods, different principals have different methods. The ministry tries not to scrutinise everything they say, everything they do as long as they haven’t committed a heinous offence. Let them do their own thing and let parents judge the character of their school."
"Over time they (parents) will know which school’s methods, which principal’s methods work better than others. And individual principals too will learn over time. Tweak here and there, improve here and there because no one is perfect," he added.
The issue then is to find a balance between affirming children and challenging them, which Mr Tharman said is always a key craft of the school and its teachers.
The minister also cited how recent studies in the US found not only does the child’s confidence matters, but also the teacher’s effectiveness, his/her teaching, and the child’s willingness to put in some hard work, all contribute to the education outcome.
In fact, a Brooklyn Institution study of the results of an International Maths and Science Test showed the least confident Singapore student ended up doing better than the most confident American student.
Mr Tharman’s point was that while it is important to motivate the student, the ministry should leave schools to find their own balance on how they want to affirm or challenge the student.
The ministry will not intrude on the schools’ approaches unless something goes completely wrong. And such autonomy, he said, is what will help schools differentiate themselves qualitatively over time. — CNA/ac