Training Examiners on Criteria to Use When Making Decisions During National Examinations in Schools

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Education in respect of national examinations which are conducted in schools (a) whether examiners are trained on the quantitative and objective criteria to make decisions during the examinations, such as considering a request to replay the audio tracks for a listening comprehension examination; and (b) under what conditions are examination personnel permitted to make decisions based on subjective criteria.

Prior to the conduct of the national examinations, examination personnel are briefed on the standard operating procedures relating to the preparation and conduct of the examinations, including procedures to deal with various scenarios, such as late arrival of candidates due to train disruptions and unclear audio broadcast during the Listening examinations.

In complicated or unusual situations, examination personnel will consult the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) on the measures to be taken. This is to ensure that the examinations are conducted fairly for all candidates.

For Listening examinations, SEAB has put in protocols to handle disruptions, such as environmental noise from movement of heavy vehicles, flypasts or muffled playback from the speakers. For such disruptions, the examination personnel are allowed to replay the affected tracks to ensure fair assessment for affected students.

In the recent incident from the 2024 GCE O-level English Language Listening examination, five centres out of 140 examination centres reported having to replay part of the audio tracks in one to two of their classrooms, due to environmental noise or muffled playback from the speakers. The assessment format required tracks 2 to 6 to be played twice. Therefore, in the case of a replay, the affected tracks would be replayed after all tracks have been played and according to the examination format.