Singapore's education ministry to stop listing top-scoring students

Singapore's Ministry of Education said that it and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board will stop listing top-scoring students in all national examinations, a local television channel reported on Tuesday.

The ministry will stop the current practice of listing the top students for the primary school leaving examination (PLSE), the O- Level and the N-Level examinations, Channel NewsAsia quoted the ministry as saying.

Singapore students are typically put in different streams in accordance with their performance in key examinations. The N-Level is typically for students who have finished the fourth year of their secondary education, while the O-Level is taken after five years for students of the "normal stream" or fours for students of the "express" stream.

The ministry has never indicated the top scorers for the A- Level examination, which is usually taken by students shortly before they complete their two-year education at junior colleges or three years at pre-university institutes.

Some of the examinations, like the PSLE, is seen by many as creating too much competitive pressure on the students at a young age. Singapore's educational authorities have been trying to push for changes in the education system recently to put more emphasis on holistic development and all-round excellence.

The ministry said it hopes the changes will balance the over- emphasis on academic results, though this does not mean that academic achievement will no longer be celebrated. Students who have done well academically will still receive recognition for their hard work, such as through awards and scholarships.