Percentage of Challenging Questions in 2025 PSLE Main Subject Papers

8 Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Education (a) what percentage of questions in the 2025 PSLE papers for each of the four main subjects were classified as challenging questions; (b) whether such questions require application of knowledge beyond the school syllabus; and (c) what measures the Ministry has in place to ensure that students who cannot afford private tuition are not disadvantaged by such examination questions.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) contains questions of varying difficulty levels to allow students with different abilities to demonstrate their understanding. Challenging questions make up approximately 15% of total marks in each subject.

All questions, including challenging ones, are based entirely on the primary school syllabus and do not require knowledge beyond the curriculum. However, challenging questions do require students to apply the concepts in novel or authentic contexts.

To ensure accessibility, all questions use age-appropriate language and contexts. In addition, challenging questions are often structured with scaffolding to help students attempt them progressively. These measures help to ensure that the PSLE remains accessible to all students, including those without private tuition.

Mr Speaker: Mr Gerald Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): I thank the Senior Minister of State for his answer. Sir, I understand that answering challenging questions require a higher order application of knowledge that is taught in the school syllabus. This refers to the ability to use foundational concepts to analyse, synthesise, evaluate and create solutions to complex problems. Are these higher order application skills even taught in schools? Is there sufficient curriculum time to do that without overloading our teachers or are students expected to acquire them through private tuition?

Secondly, what is the larger purpose of including these challenging questions in national exams, if students are not taught in school how to answer them? Could it, inadvertently, become a sorting mechanism to identify students with the most resources to get the best tuition? It should be noted that missing all the challenging questions in the PSLE paper would cap the student's grade at Achievement Level 3 (AL3) for that exam, which will impact their ability to gain admission to many competitive secondary schools.

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Sir, I thank Mr Giam for the questions. The higher order questions, the challenging questions, are included partly because there are students who can deal with them and who then need their cognitive abilities, their academic abilities assessed correctly. And if we did not include the higher order questions, the more challenging questions, those students who would be able to cope with these questions would not have their abilities adequately assessed and then, would not be adequately served by PSLE.

He asked if the students were taught how to address challenging questions, or whether they were expected to only learn how to address them through the use of private tuition. The answer to the second part of that question is no. There is not an expectation that the only way to deal with challenging questions is through private tuition. Indeed, throughout the approach within our formal education system in the schools, the students are taught repeatedly how to take a concept and apply it to a question that they have not previously encountered.

This requires taking a concept that one knows about, addressing it to a novel situation, or addressing it in a way in combination with other concepts. This requires creativity, some imagination and an application of problem-solving skills. These skills – higher order thinking, problem solving, creativity and imagination – are applied repeatedly over the course of the formal education system using the concepts within the curriculum and they are similarly tested a combination of the concepts as well as the higher order thinking within the framework of PSLE. This entirely reflects the curriculum and the syllabus, and not any requirement for private tuition.

Mr Speaker: Mr Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Sir, I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. But can I clarify that what he means is that the 15% of challenging questions, the ability to take those foundational concepts, and apply them and be able to answer those questions, those techniques are being taught in schools to all students?

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Sir, I thank Mr Giam for the question. He used the word "techniques", implying that these are things that one just has to follow a checklist. These are skills, and a skill is not quite the same as a technique. So, indeed, the consideration of the development of these skills is a part of the formal curriculum and the syllabus that all students will go through.