Unintended ‘problems’ could surface with new curriculum for secondary schools

I refer to the report detailing the Government’s decision to abolish streaming in the near future.

While we must appreciate the Government’s efforts in slaying this sacred cow, we should not be under the delusion that this major change in policy would lead to a significant reduction in the stigma experienced by students who are less academically inclined.

Under the new system, students would no longer be labelled as belonging to the Express, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams.

However, it is just an effort in repackaging or renaming the streams.

Under the new subject-based banding system, each subject will be categorised into General 1 (G1), General 2 (G2) and General 3 (G3).

The G1 level will correspond to the Normal (Technical) standard, G2 to Normal (Academic) and G3 to Express.

It will not be long before parents and stakeholders reclassify students into these categories.

While I understand that certain schools have already tried grouping students of different academic abilities into the same class, the jury is still out on how this can be possible logistically when this policy is adopted nationwide, and whether it will lead to other problems such as a lack of “class identification”. Students may be artificially grouped into a “class” but may not adequately bond with his or her “classmates” because they may all take a significant number of subjects at different levels, so they have to move to different classes every few periods.

There will also be the added challenge of determining which student should qualify for certain junior colleges and polytechnics since there will only be a common certificate co-branded by Singapore and Cambridge.

This means that like-for-like comparisons will no longer be possible. For example, should a student with 5 “C” grades at the G3 level be admitted ahead of another student with 7 “A” grades at the G2 level?

I hope the authorities can review this policy carefully as it may lead to other unintended negative and controversial outcomes.