SINGAPORE — A former teacher with four school-going boys asked for a “kinder, smaller” Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) that does not evaluate students so harshly. Speaking at the third Our Singapore Conversation on Education session last night (May 9), Ms Marie Hwang, 42, cited an example of an English Language question which asked students to form sentences. However, because of a punctuation error, the child would be marked wrong for the entire question. She felt that there is a need to re-look at the boundaries of testing to allow students to still have a balanced lifestyle despite having to undergo examinations. Yesterday’s session — which was also attended by Senior Parliamentary Secretaries for Education Mr Hawazi Daipi and Ms Sim Ann — saw the 120 participants, a quarter of whom are parents, discussing two topics during the two-hour session: Stress and an excessive focus on examinations and grades; ensuring opportunities, social mobility and inclusion. Common strands of thought emerged among the participants, with several highlighting the desire to see more social mixing in schools — getting the stronger pupils to help the weak. In turn, they added that the stronger kids would be able to learn how to work with others of different capabilities. Parents such as Mr Yong Kit Mun was also hoping for a more broad-based school curriculum where schooling can be fun. He suggested having a four-day study week with the final weekday for pupils to play and find out things on their own. Likewise, there were many who agreed that teachers play a key role in having a good education system. They asked for more support to be given to teachers, allowing them to find passion in their work and to enable them to unlock the potential of each child. Mr Hawazi assured participants that teachers here were selected from the top one-third of each cohort and clarified that teachers are not evaluated based on their students’ academic achievements. He added that the Education Ministry (MOE) also distributes teachers with different abilities and interests across the schools. Ms Sim noted that the suggestion for more social mixing in schools is a common topic raised by participants — allowing pupils of different skills to work and play with one another. “The question is whether (students) are consistently encouraged to do so, and I think this is something which deserves serious thought, deserves further discussion,” she added But Ms Sim also pointed out that there are several commonalities among the discussions. This include some parents who want PSLE to remain but to change the way the PSLE results are used and the nature of the examination itself, she said. The feedback from the sessions will be consolidated and contribute towards further discussions on policy reviews. A summary of the discussions will also be shared online periodically with the public, so that they are updated on the progress of the conversation. NG JING YNG