Debated in Parliament on 15 Nov 2012.
Asst Prof Tan Kheng Boon Eugene asked the Minister for Education (a) what impact does the annual data of major ethnic groups' academic performances have on racial stereotyping; and (b) given that year-to-year changes in the ethnic groups' academic performance are not significant, whether the same objective of providing feedback to the communities on their academic performance can be achieved by a limited release of the annual data to the ethnic self-help groups, with a public release of such data at five or ten-year intervals.
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Mr Hawazi Daipi (for the Minister for Education): Sir, the objective of MOE's annual press release is to provide timely information to the various communities on how their children have fared in the national examinations and in their progression to post-secondary education. This enables the respective communities to monitor the effectiveness of their educational programmes, and recognise and celebrate their children's achievements. There is also value in providing such information so that the community, ethnic self-help groups and the public can study the data and discuss areas for improvement.
Sir, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his reply. I do not doubt the utility of those data. I just would like to enquire whether the same purpose would be served by not so regular reporting. If year-to-year information is needed, they could be provided to the ethnic self-help groups. I raise this because, from anecdotal evidence, the data tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. In the process, they could possibly undermine performances of students that we actually want to help. It would affect their self-esteem. One thing about the data is that because the ethnic Chinese students probably comprise at least three quarters of the student population, the national average is invariably heavily influenced by the performance of the ethnic Chinese students.
Sir, in our discussions with the self-help groups, we find that the release of the data has been welcomed, because it gives them the opportunity to assess their programmes and devise new programmes and activities which may help propel further progress of children in their ethnic community and to do better. If, indeed, there are very little variations year-on-year, and then it is only necessary to give updates on ethnic educational performance of our students periodically, then the effect would be more or less the same. Based on our interaction with the self-help groups, they do welcome the annual release of data of the performance of their students because they want to see the progress of the programmes that they have carried out over the years.
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Just last Monday, I informed the House, in answering Mr Zaqy's question, that 88% of Malay students have progressed to post-secondary institutions. If we take the annual figure, we see probably marginal changes, but, over the years, we see great improvement. Despite that, the self-help groups and many members of the community want to see the progress year-on-year.
Asst Prof Tan, last question.
Sir, I certainly appreciate the clarification and, certainly, we all welcome the progress made by the various communities. My concern is, as I mentioned, about racial stereotyping. Every year, some Singaporeans would take the view that the performance figures reinforced their views of certain communities. I do not find that very helpful. Granted that the ethnic self-help groups find the information useful, I see no reason why the information cannot be made available to them directly, rather than through lots of publicity in the newspapers, especially when the Ministry recognises that the year-on-year changes are actually not very significant.
Sir, I appreciate the Member's opinion on this, but we find that, through self-help groups and community leaders, there has been positive feedback. They use it as a tool to devise new activities, new programmes that can help the community to improve further. It is not just pertaining to the Malay community self-help groups or leaders. I chair the committee with our self-help groups – the four self-help groups – and they do welcome this. They want to find new ways to help students of their own ethnic groups, yet, at the same time, want to find some ways where students of the different groups can enjoy the activities or programmes together. In a nutshell, they do find value in having or knowing the performance of these students annually because it gives them a sense of whether their programmes have been effective or not.
As for stereotyping, through the self-help groups – as a reflection of the communities' reaction to this – we do not feel that sense that it enhances stereotyping. Yes, some people may feel so, but, generally, the communities do not feel that it has enhanced stereotyping as a result of the release of the data.
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