Debated in Parliament on 16 Sep 2013.
Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for Education (a) what methods and review processes will schools use to identify and quantify "leadership", "drive" and "resilience" in students under the new Direct School Admission scheme; (b) what changes to the existing curriculum will be required to support these processes; and (c) whether the current class size of around 40 students per class will allow teachers to adequately assess students for these qualities.
Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for Education in order to support the inclusion of qualities of "leadership", "drive" and "resilience" in students under the new Direct School Admission scheme (a) what training will be provided to educators to enable them to identify and quantify such qualities; and (b) what administrative assistance will be provided to educators to support the implementation.
The Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme seeks to promote holistic education by recognising a more diverse range of student strengths, abilities and achievements, beyond performance at the national examinations, as criteria for school admission.
In recent years, MOE has progressively implemented the recommendations of the 2009 Primary Education Review to provide a more holistic education in primary schools. These include establishing the new Programme for Active Learning, strengthening the quality of Physical Education, Art and Music education, and implementing Holistic Assessment in all schools.
To support teachers in these curricular and assessment innovations, MOE has adopted a systematic approach of prototyping in a few schools, followed by a phased rollout to all schools. This ensures that deep expertise and curriculum material are progressively developed in these new areas with close collaboration between school teachers and senior specialists in MOE.
In 2009, 16 Primary schools were selected to plan and prototype Holistic Assessment approaches at Primary 1 and 2. One strategy was having co-form teachers – rather than only one form teacher per class, thus allowing the two co-form teachers to each know 15 to 20 students in their form class very well. These 16 schools had shared their experiences and resources with other schools and showcased their practices. Holistic Assessment has since been
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systematically phased in.
As of 2013, all Primary schools have begun implementing Holistic Assessment.
To provide further support, MOE launched the Holistic Assessment Website for teachers to exchange information, exemplars, resources, strategies and tools for the planning and implementation of Holistic Assessment.
MOE has also recently introduced the curriculum for Character and Citizenship Education (CCE), and introduced Values in Action (VIA) as a way to better develop the personal traits of our students. VIA are learning experiences that support students' development as socially responsible citizens who contribute meaningfully to the community, through learning and applying values, knowledge and skills. Students will be able to showcase their leadership ability, resilience in pursuing a cause and commitment to the community through the projects which they undertake. To support CCE in our schools, MOE has provided training to more than 700 CCE mentor teachers.
To recognise holistic development in students, MOE will broaden the DSA scheme to take into account personal qualities and attributes. Details will be announced in due course.
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