SINGAPORE: In a recent Parliament session, Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim brought up a “Flexible Through-Train Program for Schools,” designed to help students who find tests stressful and learn at a pace that’s suitable for them.
Noting that tests are common in Singapore’s educational system, as well as in many others, he said “The Workers’ Party proposal to introduce an optional, 10-year through-train program (10 YTS) from Primary 1 through Secondary 4 allows parents who wish to allow their children to bypass the PSLE to do so. Thus, their first major examination will be at Secondary 4.”
And while the Sengkang GRC MP said this in a speech during the debate on MOE’s budget on Feb 28, over the past two days, Assoc Prof Lim posted over Facebook a video of his speech, as well as important points in the through-train program proposal.
“Some kids progress rapidly and assertively, but while others may take longer to get there, they could well be late bloomers that find their stride later on,” noted the MP on Mar 8, who is an Associate Professor of Economics.
He characterized the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) as a high-stakes test that “could instil in a 12-year-old that sense of make-or-break at a tender age” and asked if this is justified.
“Is it a building block that can imbue an early sense of accomplishment and independence, or is it more a stumbling block for their self-confidence?” he continued.
The through-train route that WP proposed, conversely, would allow families the option of greater flexibility for their children.
On Mar 9, he wrote in a post that his wife is someone for whom tests are stressful, noting that there are others who suffer from test anxiety as well.
“And this anxiety affects their performance, and so—for folks like these—tests become poor gauges of ability. Furthermore, while some of us clearly need tests to motivate us to study… others are demotivated when they think about exams,” he added.
Some universities no longer require entrance tests, and companies such as Google “don’t even require a degree anymore, and many downplay grades,” he said.
Assoc Prof Lim also wrote that he believes “modern education should be teaching students how to filter information and analyze data. These skills aren’t well captured by tests, which tend to privilege memorization and replication,” and in his own capacity as a professor, he only gives open-book exams in his courses).
He also wrote that bypassing the PSLE does not mean students’ performance is no longer monitored, and employing such feedback mechanisms as specialized tutoring or increased instructional time has turned out to be more effective.
“The key is to make teacher-student relationships an interactive dialogue. I know my best learning experiences were always with teachers who cared about whether I got something, rather than just being able to cough up the correct answer,” he added.
His speech may be viewed in full here. /TISG
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