Debated in Parliament on 25 Feb 2013.
Ms Janice Koh asked the Minister for Education from 1992 to 2012 (a) what are the yearly number and proportion of schools that offer pure Geography and pure History at Upper Secondary level as an "O" level and "N(A)" level subject; (b) what is the yearly number of students and what is the percentage of the annual cohort who take pure Geography and pure History at "O" and "N(A)" level; (c) what are the annual performance results for Geography, History and Social Studies at "O" and "N(A)" level; and (d) whether there has been any disparity in the take-up rate and performance results of students taking Full Literature as compared with Geography, History and Social Studies
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and, if so, why.
Geography and History are compulsory subjects for all students at the lower Secondary levels. Before 2001, all upper Secondary students could offer one or two of the following Humanities subjects: Geography, History and Literature. From 2001, all upper Secondary students offered the compulsory Combined Humanities subject comprising a Social Studies component and one of the following components: elective versions of Geography, History and Literature. Students could also offer Geography, History or Literature as a second Humanities subject. The second Humanities subject offered must be different from the elective component in Combined Humanities.
From 1992 to 2001, the candidature for Geography and History at "O" and "N(A)" level was stable. In 2001, there were about 21,500 (64%) "O" level Geography and 5,900 (58%) "N(A)" level Geography candidates; and 12,600 (37.5%) "O" level History and 3,900 (38.3%) "N(A)" level History candidates. In 2012, the candidature was 4,520 (12.1%) for "O" level Geography and 120 (1%) for "N(A)" level Geography; and 1,250 (3.3%) for "O" level History and 32 (0.3%) for "N(A)" level History. In addition, for Combined Humanities (Social Studies and Elective Geography), there were about 19,600 (52%) "O" level students and 7,200 (58.4%) "N(A)" level students; and for Combined Humanities (Social Studies and Elective History), there were about 14,400 (38.2%) "O" level students and 4,600 (37.3%) "N(A)" level students.
From 1992 to 2001, the number of schools offering Geography and History at "O" and "N(A)" level was stable. In 2001, 137 (83%) schools offered Geography at "O" level and 100 (75.9%) at "N(A)" level. There were 137 (83%) schools offering History at "O" level and 102 (73.3%) at "N(A)" level. In 2012, the number of schools was 81 (51.3%) for "O" level Geography and five (3.6%) for "N(A)" level Geography; and 34 (21.5%) for "O" level History and one (0.7%) for "N(A)" level History.
From 1992 to 2012, students’ performance in Geography and History at "O" level has shown steady improvement. For Geography, the pass rate increased from 86.3% to 96.7%. For History, the pass rate increased from 60.8% to 97%. Performance of candidates at "N(A)" level has been consistent for both subjects over the same period. In 2012, the pass rate was 91.9% for Geography, and for History, the pass rate was 96.9%.
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From 1992 to 2012, Literature was more popular than History but less popular than Geography in most years. In 2012, there were about 3,140 Literature, 4,520 Geography and 1,250 History candidates.
Over the same period, the results for Literature were comparable to those of Geography, History and Combined Humanities. In 2012, 95.8% of "O" level Literature candidates obtained passes. Geography, History and Combined Humanities candidates obtained 96.7%, 97% and 83% passes respectively. "N(A)" level Literature candidates obtained 91.1% passes. These results compared favourably with 91.9% passes for Geography, 96.9% passes for History and 84.1% passes for Combined Humanities.
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