Research on Correlation of PSLE-based School Placement and Socio-economic Status Performance Gap

8 Assoc Prof Kenneth Goh asked the Minister for Education regarding the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) findings linking earlier academic sorting to stronger socio-economic status (SES) performance associations (a) whether the Ministry has assessed whether PSLE-based school placement at age 12 amplifies the SES-performance gap; (b) if so, what that assessment found; and (c) if no such assessment exists, whether the Ministry intends to conduct one.

The Minister of State for Education (Ms Jasmin Lau) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, globally, our students from higher socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds tend to perform better academically than students from lower-income backgrounds. We have not studied, nor do we plan at this time to study, whether secondary school placement based on the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results amplifies this skew, as there are many factors that influence the academic performance of our students.

Instead, our focus is to help all our students achieve their full potential, regardless of background. This includes providing more support to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds and also providing porosity in our education pathways, such as through Full Subject-Based Banding at the secondary level, to strengthen their education outcomes.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Kenneth Goh.

Assoc Prof Kenneth Goh (Nominated Member): Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Minister of State for the response. Given that the SES educational performance gap and the economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) index slope are indicators of educational inequity, and also given this House's commitment to educational equity, especially where we have stated that where you start does not determine where you end up in life, would the Ministry of Education (MOE) consider tracking and targeting these indicators? And if not, why not? Especially since these indicators can give us a sense of whether the measures that have been undertaken by MOE are working.

Ms Jasmin Lau: I thank the Member for his question. We will continue to monitor this trend closely as part of our overall efforts to ensure that all of our students are able to maximise their full potential.

Mr Speaker: Mr David Hoe.

Mr David Hoe (Jurong East-Bukit Batok): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have two supplementary questions on social mixing as a leveller.

Could the Ministry share how it is actively strengthening social mixing across different SES within and across schools, and whether do we track the effectiveness of it? That is my first question.

The second one is, I would like to check if there is a progress update to my previous Parliamentary Question, where I asked whether MOE would consider a tie-breaker mechanism that gives students of lower SES background some priority for schools that are over-subscribed?

Ms Jasmin Lau: I thank the Member for his question. In response to his first question, yesterday, I did explain how our system of Posting Groups and Full Subject-Based Banding now do allow many more of our students to experience social mixing in our schools. Outside of formal curriculum, we also have co-curricular activities and Values in Action projects that our students can participate in.

On the Member's second question, we are reviewing. We will also engage the public in our education conversations, and update when ready.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Speaker, thank you for allowing me to join the debate. While I did not file a Parliamentary Question on this topic today, I had filed related Parliamentary Questions before and spoke on the issue during this year's Budget Debate.

To follow on from Assoc Prof Goh's Parliamentary Question, I wonder if the Ministry has looked into how much the growing relevance of SES may be driven by access to tuition? After all, if a student from a poorer household falls behind in class, they are much less likely to be able to make up for this lost ground with private tuition, compared to a family with access to more resources.

Relatedly, I recall that when I was going to school, our teachers would conduct remedial classes for weaker students. May I check how widespread such practice is in schools today, or has it become de-emphasised, perhaps because our teachers are already putting in between 47 and 53 hours a week, around 25% more than their Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development counterparts?

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, you are actually not entering a debate. You should be asking supplementary questions. I just wanted to make a point that we are not debating about an issue.

Ms Jasmin Lau: I thank the Member for his questions. MOE does provide additional support to many students with higher educational needs. And we continue to do so in programmes, even though the names may have changed from those that we understood and knew when we were students and those that students experience today.

For instance, primary schools do provide very targeted academic intervention for students who need more support to strengthen their foundational skills in reading, literacy and numeracy. This includes learning support programmes, reading remediation programmes and learning support for mathematics. So, we want to do this through our schools to ensure that all of our students do have access to support to improve their academic performances.