Tweak Sec 1 posting exercise to help some students who take Tamil

The Primary School Leaving Examination results are out. (“PSLE results: 97.6% make it to secondary school”; Nov 22)

Indian-Singaporean students who will have to take Tamil as a mother tongue in another school outside their school’s curriculum time will be at a disadvantage.

I emailed the Education Ministry last month to ask about the selection process when such a student is vying with students taking another mother tongue for the final place in a school offering Tamil.

It replied that “where there are two or more students with the same rounded aggregate score vying for the last place in a school, they will be posted based on their citizenship status”, i.e. citizens, then permanent residents, then international students.

I find this rigid and untenable. Under the circumstance, an exception should be made if the Indian student is a citizen. Other students do not have to go to a school besides their own for their mother tongue subject.

I am sure that others can empathise and find this acceptable. Furthermore, the computerised ballot negates and stifles the student’s potential if he has to go to another school with a lower cut-off point than he attained.