Collective hallucination? WP MP Jamus Lim unconvinced by official explanation on alleged discrepancy in O-Level English Oral Exam

SINGAPORE: In a recent social media post, Sengkang Member of Parliament Jamus Lim (Workers’ Party) expressed dissatisfaction with the official results of the investigation into an alleged discrepancy in the O-Level English Oral Exam that took place on July 15.

Some candidates said that they saw a different question during their preparation from the one asked by their examiners.

Around 432 candidates reported a discrepancy. 

In Parliament earlier this month, Senior Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary said that the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) had conducted a thorough investigation and found that all the candidates and examiners had accessed the same material for the test.

“There was no evidence of a system malfunction, no discrepancy in the prompt displayed to candidates and examiners, and no cybersecurity incident detected,” he added.

Assoc Prof Lim had raised a question in Parliament on the matter, pointing out that there were also teachers who found the discrepancy, and having noted Dr Puthucheary’s explanation, he asked if the SEAP was “implicitly suggesting that there could have been an occasion of collective hallucination that occurred on that day.”

If this were the case, he added, “that the investigation would have perhaps implicitly privileged computer forensic evidence over the contemporary testimony of a significant number of human witnesses?”

In reply, Dr Puthucheary pointed out the variance in the phrases that the students reported, and added that both the statements from the candidates and the technical assessment had been looked into.

He also said that according to the SEAB, the preliminary data had revealed that the mean score for the oral examination for July 15 had been comparable to that of the other four sessions for this year.

Assoc Prof Lim, however, wrote in his post that he was not satisfied with the replies that were given.

“Personally, I remain unconvinced by the official conclusion. I find it implausible that there could have been some ex-post collusion by hundreds of people to report essentially the same problem, and it is likewise difficult to imagine how nothing anomalous actually occurred this one time, when there has been no previous history of such reports.

I would also not use the varied distribution of responses as a reason to downplay the issue; after all, most human recollections tend to vary in detail, while getting the broad picture right. #workingforsingapore,” he wrote. /TISG

Read related: WP MP Kenneth Tiong to file Parliamentary question on alleged discrepancy in O-Level English Oral Exam