Potential for Economically Disadvantaged Students in Singapore to Under-perform

16 Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Education (Schools) whether the Government is concerned that the report by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released in November 2017 titled "Excellence and Equity in Education" found that economically disadvantaged students in Singapore were significantly more likely to under-perform in science in school, compared to their OECD counterparts.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Education): Sir, Ms Lim's question as stated is factually incorrect. It is not true that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds in Singapore are more likely to under-perform than their Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) counterparts. In fact, the data from the OECD report show that students from lower socio-economic status (SES) homes in Singapore have higher average Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 scores than their OECD peers from comparable SES backgrounds in all the three domains measured − Reading, Mathematics and Science.

Notwithstanding this, if I can presume to read into Ms Lim's underlying concern, it is indeed something that the Ministry of Education (MOE) is focused upon because it is important that the students from the lower SES homes are able to overcome their circumstances and do well.

The same OECD report has found that about half of our students from the bottom 25% SES in Singapore performed much better internationally than what their home circumstances would predict. OECD calls such students "resilient students". Our proportion of resilient students is substantially higher than OECD's average of about 30% in the PISA 2015 study.

Our efforts to support the learning of students who need more help are working. MOE has put in place various programmes to provide additional support targeted at specific learning needs of students. We have a special reading programme for Kindergarten 2 children with difficulties learning English; and the Learning Support Programme in English and Mathematics for Primary 1 and Primary 2 students. At the higher grade levels, there are corresponding programmes such as those that provide reading remediation or help students improve their confidence and numeracy skills. Other efforts include targeted needs-based financial assistance schemes across all schooling years.

But we do not rest on our laurels. It takes constant hard work to enable every student to achieve their potential during their educational journey, especially those from more challenging home circumstances. MOE will therefore continue to work closely with other agencies and community partners to provide the necessary support for students who need it most.

Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied): Thank you, Sir. Two supplementary questions for the Senior Minister of State. Earlier, he mentioned that my assumption in the question was not correct. But from the report, it is stated that Belgium, Singapore and Switzerland were the only three high-performing countries with below-average levels of equity in education outcome. So, what do they mean by that? The only three high-performing countries with below-average levels of equity.

I think there was a table that compared the performance of socio-economically disadvantaged students at 15 years old across different countries. It was stated that the likelihood of such disadvantaged students to under-perform is 2.8 times for the OECD average, but Singapore is 4.37 times. So, is that not an indication that we have a bigger issue to worry about in terms of equity?

The second question I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State is, what indicators does MOE track of social mobility in education? In a previous Parliamentary Question (PQ) that I filed almost 10 years ago, we know from the then Minister that MOE does track, for example, students going to our public universities based on housing type. We had an indication of social mobility there but are there any other indicators that the Ministry tracks internally?

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Sir, with respect to the second question I do not have the data with me. I would be happy to follow up with Ms Lim or she can file a separate PQ on internal data. The information I have is related to the OECD report and I would like to address the first question.

What the OECD study found was that in Singapore, the higher performing students outperformed the OECD average by a wider margin than the lower performing students in the lower SES homes. So, our lower SES students do outperform the lower SES students in OECD countries. But our higher SES students outperform the higher SES students in other OECD countries by an even larger margin resulting in the differential that she talked about.

So, our lower SES students are doing well. Our lower SES students are outperforming the OECD average. The higher SES students are outperforming the higher SES students in the OECD by a larger margin, and so the difference in the outperformance of all our students is greater than the OECD average. So, if one chooses that as the measure of equity, which the OECD has chosen to do, then the mathematical result is as Ms Lim has demonstrated.

However, it does not mean that our lower SES students are under-performing their OECD counterparts. That is not the case. I hope that answers Ms Lim's question.