Treatment of Private PSLE Candidates in Secondary School Posting Exercise

10 Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Minister for Education (Schools) (a) in 2015, what is the number of Singaporean PSLE private candidates who have been posted to secondary schools not of their first choice even though they meet the cut-off point; (b) what is the Secondary One placement policy for such candidates; (c) what is the rationale to treat such candidates differently from those studying in mainstream schools during Secondary One placement exercises; and (d) whether the policy can be reviewed to uphold the principle of meritocracy.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministers for Education (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) (for the Minister for Education (Schools)): Madam, the Secondary One (S1) Posting Exercise is a placement exercise designed for students from national primary schools who are progressing to mainstream secondary schools. Hence, those who are not enrolled in our primary schools and are taking the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) as private candidates, are not included in this Secondary One Posting Exercise.

However, if such private candidates or students are interested and eligible to join mainstream secondary schools, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will facilitate their admission to a secondary school. MOE will take into account the students' choices of schools, PSLE results and available vacancies at the point of facilitation. As vacancies are limited, we may not always be able to offer these students a place in a school of their choice, but we will aim to match the students to a school appropriate to their academic learning needs.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Zainal Sapari.

Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol): I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for his answer. I have some supplementary questions. First, I would appreciate it if he could give a sense of the number of students who are doing this as private candidates. I believe many of them might be madrasah students and a few of them are home-schooled children.

My second supplementary question is: were the parents informed and need to sign to acknowledge that they know about this policy that has been in place that they could not be given priority during the Secondary One Placement Exercise after their children get the PSLE results?

My third supplementary question is really whether MOE would consider reviewing this policy, given the fact that it is not aligned to our principle of meritocracy and the fact that these students are sitting for the same national PSLE.

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Madam, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. Maybe I will answer the last question first. Yes, parents are informed in various ways. One, we have the information on the MOE webpage for the Secondary One Posting Exercise which states that only students from our national primary schools are eligible to participate in this Secondary One Posting Exercise. Also, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) works with the madrasahs to ensure that parents are aware of this. For the home schoolers, when the parents are applying to homeschool their children, MOE will inform them that they are not eligible to participate in this Secondary One Posting Exercise.

About the number, on average, over the last five years, we received about 20 requests each year from these PSLE private candidates to be facilitated into our mainstream schools. This is a very small number or percentage of the number of students who are not in our national primary schools. And I would also like to inform the Member that we are able to facilitate the majority of these requests to one of the school choices of the students and some of them are also facilitated into their top choices.

So, beyond this, I would like to assure the Member that we have been, and we will continue to facilitate this process. However, we look at the academic merit as well. It is not only about other aspects. The academic merit is also important. Nevertheless, vacancy availability during the facilitation process is also key. While we want to ensure that we are able to facilitate, we have to make sure that our Secondary One Posting Exercise is also being undertaken.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Zainal Sapari.

Mr Zainal Sapari: Could the Parliamentary Secretary elaborate whether MOE would consider reviewing this policy? I strongly believe people are our very valuable resource and we really need to give them the best opportunity possible for them to study in an environment that could maximise their potential. My worry is that some of these students might be doing well but because they are private candidates, they are not able to go to schools of better quality based on their results.

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Madam, I thank the Member for the follow-up question. Like what I have said earlier, these are two separate issues whereby we have informed parents and also students that the Secondary One Posting Exercise is catering to our students from the national schools.

Nevertheless, like what I said earlier, I assure the Member that MOE will try our best to facilitate, to ensure that the posting is tagged to the academic needs of the children and also we have to look at the vacancies available. And I must say that from experience, we have been able to facilitate the majority of the students into the schools of their choice.