Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh also expressed the sentiment that PSLE scores do not define students as he recorded a video message to encourage a 12-year-old who was disappointed with her Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) score of 233.
The student would firmly be in the express stream with a score of 233 but she “wasn’t exactly the happiest” over her results, according to her mother Sanisah who visited Mr Singh at his Meet-the-People session on Monday (7 Nov).
Revealing that the video message he recorded for Sanisah’s daughter at her behest was a first, Mr Singh said that he would have been overjoyed if he had gotten a score of 233 when he did his PSLE many years ago. He wrote on Instagram on Tuesday evening (8 Nov): “If I scored 233 for my PSLE, I would have been over the moon and doing cartwheels.
“I met Sanisah at my Meet-the-People session last night who shared that her daughter . So at Sanisah’s request, and in a first, I recorded a short video message reminding her dear daughter to keep her chin up as one of my “solutions” to a MPS case.”
Mr Singh, who is also Singapore’s leader of the opposition, added in his post that PSLE “is hardly going to matter at all” in the future which will require a different kind of worker as artificial intelligence and advanced technology transform the nature of work:
“As I learn and experience everyday, the world of tomorrow will be very different from that of our parents. One dimensional; repetitive and routine work will be replaced with AI and new technology.
“The world of tomorrow will call for the worker of tomorrow – requiring a masterful combination of hard and soft skills. In that context, the PSLE is hardly going to matter at all.”
He added: “There will be more opportunities to chase that ? in the years to come. Seize them, even as the competition intensifies. And never underestimate yourself. You drive your own destiny.”
Mr Singh used the hashtag ‘PSLE does not define you’ to conclude his post, which drew over 2,000 likes in just one hour.
Interestingly, ruling party politicians Lawrence Wong, Ong Ye Kung, and Heng Swee Keat drew some backlash after they expressed a similar sentiment when students collected their PSLE results late last month.
WP MP is well-versed with PSLE stress tutoring his own daughter
PM-designate Heng Swee Keat also told P6 pupils that their future does not depend on one exam