After many students were left distraught over the PSLE papers last week, parents have become increasing concerned about their mental health and wellbeing. It seems the PSLE math questions were too much for students, so much so that many of them came home dejected and teary-eyed.
To hear more about the difficulty of the two PSLE math papers (organised on on Friday, 1 October), theAsianparent reached out to local parents to gauge what their children are going through.
Parents Concerned That PSLE Was Too Difficult, Particularly The Math Questions
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Given how tough the PSLE math questions were, dad Mark Tan* shared that his son was tearing up and didn’t even want to talk. His son only opened up about to say that the paper was “very hard.”
Another distressed dad tells theAsianparent, “I have totally given up on MOE and realised that I need to take matters into my own hands. The system and journey will only bring more stress, demoralization [and] depression to my kids.”
“The test papers for math and science were totally ridiculous as if they are looking for Albert Einstein,” he adds.
A mum who also noticed her child coming home dejected says, “Our kids are tagged or labelled through their grades. No joy in learning, no excitement. Just follow and do. They are conditioned how to answer questions in a certain style and formula.”
“The kids go through emotional and mental abuse by our education system, these 2 days of exam papers has proven how the education system has failed to educate our kids,” she added.
One of the parents also hoped that MOE would limit the number of challenging questions they set. While she understands the challenging questions may be set to “sieve out” the brighter student, she hopes this would still be considered.
“They should take care of the mental health of the majority of the normal students. With so [many] difficult papers in [a] row, this will cause low morale (to the students),” the mum shares.
Is The Entire Education System Too Hard On Our Kids?
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In addition to the way PSLE papers affected their kids, parents also voiced their opinions about Singapore’s education system.
In response to pointing the biggest challenge the national exams has brought about, one parent tells us, “Our kids are not given [an] opportunity to develop critical thinking and strategic thinking in our education system.”
Noel Rodrigues, another parent, added, “I strongly believe that PSLE, started in 1960 by then Education Minister, is ridiculously outdated and plausibly counterproductive. Singapore is the last remaining advanced economy to hold a competitive national examination at the tender age of 12.”
“Malaysia has removed it early this year. South Korea has also abolished their version of PSLE. And in Nordic countries, touted as the best education system in the world as well as in reducing social inequalities, ranking 12-year-olds into specific educational path is downright criminal (they only start matriculation before higher education),” Mr Noel told theAsianparent.
“Our education system has barely changed in 60 years. Essential subjects such as coding, financial management and lateral thinking aren’t taught in local schools. Which, in effect, breeds a kid into an unequipped adult. In short, our education system needs to be turned inside out. It’s not going to be pretty as many industries (such as tuition centres, examinations boards, teachers, etc) would be disrupted,” he concluded.
With prolonged home-based learning, another concerned parent, Alvin Wang* said, “Their learning journey was disrupted massively and it has been a rollercoaster ride these two years, and to be thrown into a new scoring system is bad enough, then piled on with one of the toughest PSLE exam papers is just appalling.”
Encouragement And Support Given To Students Who Are Broken Up About PSLE Exams
Despite his concern for his son, a local dad made sure to tell his son that he was proud of him “to have stood up to that paper no matter what.” He reassured his son, “We live another day.”
The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board also recently spoke with The Straits Times and said, “All examinations have a range of questions with varying difficulty that cater to the wide range of abilities of our students.”
“We would like to encourage all students to stay the course and be reassured that having done their best, there will be multiple pathways of success,” they added in their response to ST.
*Actual names of some parents have not been disclosed on request of anonymity.
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