PSLE: Do you deserve a Leader or Follower education?

Before PSLE Results’ Day every year, Primary 6 students are constantly told that “grades don’t define you”. However, the stress of PSLE remains.

This is because students are still sorted into secondary schools according to their results, where the quality of education largely varies according to their stream – Integrated Programme (IP), Express, Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical).

A study by Ho Li-Ching from University of Wisconsin-Madison reveals that the Social Studies curriculum has vastly different learning outcomes for each stream, which the intention of grooming different types of students. The more “elite” schools also have a better access to enrichment activities and overseas exposure programs, differentiating between a “leader” education and “follower” education.

Such unequal opportunities cause students to have an unhealthy obsession with results, as they do not want to go on a supposedly less-than-ideal educational path. Read more at https://www.ricemedia.co/current-affairs-commentary-psle-grades-singapore-education-system-leaders-followers-how/