To understand the why/rationale of the shift in policy on the recalibration of school-based assessment.

• Watch the first 9 min of the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnX3ImNDANQ

• Follow the script below as needed (Source: Opening Address by Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education, at the Schools Work Plan Seminar https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/speeches/opening-address-by-mr-ong-ye-kung--minister-for-education--at-the-schools-work-plan-seminar)

Today, I will talk about the changes we need to make to ensure education continues to uplift lives and prepare our young for the future. This is the central question every educator in the world is asking – how to prepare our young for the future?

THE TRADE-OFFS – A RECAP

5. Change is a constant in education. Change is a constant in life. A recent article in the Economist, lauded the success of Singapore’s education system. It noted that our system is undergoing a ‘quiet revolution’, and despite our achievements, the Singapore system wants to become better.

6. That is quite an apt description of the changes taking place. We do not change for change’s sake. As we change, we are careful to retain the core strengths of our system to deliver students of sound values and strong fundamentals in numeracy, literacy, and critical soft skills. Our good PISA scores affirm this approach. In that sense, the changes we push for have never been noisily labelled as slaughtering of something sacred.

7. The system is already well developed and I do not think we are in the building up phase anymore. However, as it becomes more complex, we need to be clear-eyed that in this mature system, there are trade-offs, and we must take sufficient bold steps to rebalance those trade-offs when needed. In my speech at the Economic Society of Singapore, I stated four such trade-offs.

8. The first is the balance between rigour and joy – how much robustness we want in the system and hard work we require from students, versus making learning fun and nurturing the joy of learning in our students. We know that many of us realise education in schools is at risk of becoming too stressful and maybe some unwinding is in order.

9. The second is sharpening versus blurring of academic differentiation – how finely differentiated we want examination results to be as a tool for placement and admission, versus blunting the distinction of results between students so that we can gauge learning outcomes without encouraging an overly competitive culture in our schools. The reform of the PSLE scoring system, effective in 2021, is a decisive step to reduce unnecessary competition.

10. The third trade-off is customisation versus stigmatisation – how our curriculum caters to students of different learning paces and learning needs, versus inadvertently stigmatising certain groups of students who are less academically inclined. I know many educators feel strongly about this, and we should explore how to further leverage Subject-Based Banding to optimise this trade-off.

11. Fourth, skills versus paper qualifications - the importance of attaining credentials such as Nitec certificates, Diplomas or Degrees, versus acquiring skills that make a person effective at the job. Through SkillsFuture, we are bringing both aspects together to establish a multi-path system for our students. Underlying the system is a broader definition of meritocracy that our society must embrace over time.

12. The next phase of change in education will involve re-balancing these trade-offs effectively and decisively, and many initiatives are already under way.

13. In 1997, we developed the “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” vision, to strengthen thinking and inquiry amongst students. During this earlier phase of change, we reduced curriculum content by about 30%, enhanced teacher training, and encouraged the sharing of best practices and ideas across schools.

14. In 2005, we embarked on the “Teach Less, Learn More” movement as a subsequent phase to further strengthen teachers’ pedagogies. Our aim was to help teachers better engage students and develop their critical faculties through real-life learning experiences. Curriculum then was further reduced by 20%, to create time and space for more active and independent learning.

15. “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” was framed from a national and systemic perspective; “Teach Less, Learn More”, from the teacher’s perspective. Both remain relevant and important, but to help our students meet the challenges of an uncertain, fluid future, we need to usher in a new phase of change – one that is framed based on the students’ perspective.

LEARN FOR LIFE – THE NEXT PHASE

16. I call this phase of change – ‘Learn for Life’.

17. ‘Learn for Life’ is a value, an attitude and a skill that our students need to possess, and it is fundamental in ensuring that education remains an uplifting force in society. It is what underpins the SkillsFuture Movement. It also has to be a principal consideration in our school system.

18. Why has this become so important? In the past, Singapore attracted multinational corporations (MNCs) to set up factories and offices here. We were the world’s leading producer of disk drives. We knew what kind of talent those MNCs needed, and we were able to prepare our students well to fill those defined job roles.

19. Today, the MNCs are putting their innovation hubs and R&D centres here. Start-ups are sprouting all over, hoping to come up with the next big thing. We are witnessing the advent of “lights-out manufacturing”, where entire factories are automated. You step into them and you do not see anyone, but in the background, you have personnel with different skillsets to design the system and ensure it hums along.

20. Today, you can check in and board the aircraft in Changi Airport Terminal Four without interfacing with a single human, and that has totally redefined what a customer service officer does.

21. These innovation centres, start-ups and automated environments are creating the jobs of tomorrow. We have some, but not definitive ideas, of what these jobs will be.

22. What we do know, however, is the shape of things to come. We know that our students need to be resilient, adaptable and global in their outlook. They must leave the education system still feeling curious and eager to learn, for the rest of their lives.

23. These traits are not just adjectives that we tick off, one by one. It is a fundamental shift in our mindset.

• To identify the (what) shifts/change in policy on recalibration of school-based assessment.

• Read the Straits Times article for details https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/schools-to-cut-mid-year-exams-for-some-levels-primary-1-and-2-pupils-will-not-be-graded-or

• Identify the changes: How would you fill in the blanks?

  1. From narrow focus on grades to ___________________

  2. From learning is a competition to __________________

  3. From excessive focus on marks to _________________