The Primary 6 class of 2014 maintained last year’s record of 66 in every 100 qualifying for the Express stream in secondary school.
This year’s 66.4 per cent is close to last year’s 66.7 per cent. Previously, the figure was between 62 and 63.6 per cent.
Last year’s record result was due to a change in how some Primary School Leaving Examination questions were set. The Ministry of Education (MOE) had tweaked the more “challenging” questions to guide pupils in arriving at answers. Asked if questions were set this way this year, MOE said “the skill sets and knowledge required of candidates to answer the questions remain comparable”.
Of the 42,336 pupils who took the PSLE this year, 97.6 per cent did well enough to move on to a secondary school, better than last year’s 97.5 per cent.
About 20 per cent qualify for the Normal (Academic) stream, while 11.2 per cent are eligible for the Normal (Technical) stream.
Like in the last two years, MOE did not name the top scorer to reduce emphasis on academic results. It also did not reveal the highest and lowest scores achieved by pupils in the cohort – a move that kicked in last year.
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/education/story/2014-psle-results-match-last-years-20141122