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The PSLE and dedicated resources for low-income and less academically inclined students were two issues raised in the recent debate on inequality (Going Beyond Education to Integrate Skills: Ong Ye Kung, July 12).
But why does the end-of-primary school exam pose a problem in terms of creating undue stress for parents and students?
The underlying problem is that it is a high-stakes examination, not only in terms of placing students in express or normal water courses. but also in their use as a level of entry into secondary schools.
The truth is that many parents want their children to enter prestigious high schools for non-pedagogical benefits – a network of relationships formed by mixing with students with superior academic scores and who are likely to do well in life, or luster to be graduated from one of the best schools in Singapore.
We can not deny that a network of contacts of the same alma mater is important. This is precisely the reason why many elementary schools require a poll every year.
Such networks can anchor inequality if barriers to entry are unfair or undemocratic.
One way to improve the meritocracy is to remove the priority entry of alumni for primary schools, especially for those with affiliated high schools, as this allows a more lenient entry into some of the Singapore's most prestigious secondary schools.
It is clear that many stakeholders have differing interests on this issue, including schools, which are supported and donated by a very close network of alumni.
the practice of giving children whose parents are alumni priority admission in primary schools.
This long-standing practice should be abandoned altogether and replaced by something else.
Grace Lim Kor Lei (Ms)
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