Determining Factors in Secondary 1 Posting Exercises Given Less Differentiated PSLE Scoring System

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry continues to maintain finer distinctions internally in determining secondary school assignments despite the ostensibly less-differentiated PSLE scoring system introduced in 2021; and (b) if so, how frequently has (i) the choice order of schools and (ii) computerised balloting, respectively, been a determining factor in school assignments.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) conducts the Secondary 1 Posting Exercise in accordance with a clearly defined set of criteria. This is publicly available on the MOE website. The first posting criterion is determined by the student's Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) score, which is the sum of the Achievement Levels of their four PSLE subjects. If there are more students with the same PSLE score vying for the remaining vacancies in a school, MOE will apply tie-breakers: first, based on the students' citizenship, then their choice order of schools and, if there is still a tie, computerised balloting.

Students whose school choice required tie-breaking had their posting mostly determined by citizenship and school choice order. Over the past three years, the proportion of students who underwent computerised balloting has remained at around one in 10.