28 Feb 2004

Forum Topic: Holistic View on School's Achievements

1. I refer to the article, “Ministry Steps Away from Focus on Grades” (pdf, 615KB) (ST, 28 Feb 04), which highlighted the fact that MOE had not provided information on school performance in its release of the “O” level results.

2. Information on academic performance of secondary schools was previously released twice yearly.  First, during the release of “O” level results in Feb/Mar, and second, during the announcement of school rankings and MOE’s Masterplan of Awards winners in Sep/Oct.  Further, different indicators were used in the two releases.

3. MOE has decided from this year to consolidate information on individual schools’ performance in Sep/Oct, and to focus the release of “O” level results in Feb/Mar on achievements of top students in each course and on system-wide achievements.

4. The information to be provided in Sep/Oct, together with a refined ranking system, will give the public a fuller perspective of schools’ achievements. For example, information on schools with high value-added in their students’ academic results will provide a better indication of schools’ academic achievements than the information previously released in Feb/Mar on the few schools with improvements of 10 percentage points or more in 5 “O” level passes from one year to the next.  Schools’ academic performance will also be seen in the context of their efforts in other dimensions, such as in the arts, sports and in effective school management practices.

5. These refinements will be consistent with our schools’ efforts to provide their students with a holistic and broad-based education.

Yours sincerely

TANG TUCK WENG
DIRECTOR (PLANNING)
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION