Performance By Ethnic Group 1993 - 2002(27 November 2003)

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EDUN N25-02-004

05903

27 November 2003

Performance By Ethnic Group 1993 - 2002

1. The Ministry of Education releases data on the performance of the major ethnic groups annually. The objective is to provide feedback to the communities on how their children fared in the national examinations.

2. Attached are three sets of charts showing the performance of the various ethnic groups in the PSLE, GCE 'O' and 'A' Level Examinations for the past ten years (1993-2002). (Note that the percentages in these charts are based on school candidates who sat for the respective examinations.) Also attached is a chart on the percentage of a primary one (P1) cohort admitted to post-secondary institutions. For this chart, the percentages are based on pupils who were first enrolled in P1 ten years ago.

PERFORMANCE IN PSLE (CHARTS A1-A5)

3. The overall proportion of PSLE pupils who were eligible for secondary school had stabilized at above 95% since 1996. See Chart A1. (For this chart, the percentages are based on pupils in all streams.)

4. There was an improvement in subject performance of EM1/2 stream pupils in 2002 compared to the previous year. See Charts A2-A5.

PERFORMANCE IN GCE 'O' LEVEL (CHARTS B1-B5)

5. The overall proportion of GCE 'O' level pupils with at least 3 'O' and 5 'O' level passes have been on an upward trend. See Charts B1 and B2.

6. The overall English Language pass rate has shown steady improvements since 1998 to reach 81.4% in 2002. For the last four years, the overall pass rate in Mother Tongue Language has been moving up while that in Mathematics has remained stable at 86-87%. See Charts B3-B5.

PERFORMANCE IN GCE 'A' LEVEL (CHARTS C1-C3)

7. In 2002, the overall percentage of GCE 'A' level pupils who obtained at least 2 'A' and 2 'AO' level passes including General Paper rose by 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. See Chart C1.

8. The overall pass rate in General Paper improved to 90.8% in 2002, an increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous year. Pass rate in Mother Tongue Language has remained high, exceeding 95% for the last ten years. See Charts C2 and C3.

PERCENTAGE OF P1 COHORT ADMITTED TO POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS (PRE-U, POLYTECHNIC AND ITE) (CHART D)

9. Over the years, the overall percentage of a P1 cohort admitted to post-secondary institutions viz. junior colleges, centralised institutes, polytechnics and ITE has been on an upward trend, reaching 80.8% in 2002. See Chart D.

CONCLUSION

10. The performance of all ethnic groups has improved at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. More from each ethnic group are achieving 5 'O' level passes and entering post-secondary educational institutions.

11. At the primary level, the performance of ethnic groups, in terms of eligibility for secondary schools, has been maintained at high levels of over 90%.

12. The various communities should continue to build on this encouraging record and work towards improving performance further.

Annex

Chart A1: Percentage of PSLE Pupils Eligible for Secondary School