Research on Correlation of PSLE-based School Placement and Socio-economic Status Performance Gap

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Kenneth Goh, Nominated Member of Parliament

Question

To ask the Minister for Education regarding the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) findings linking earlier academic sorting to stronger socio-economic status (SES) performance associations (a) whether the Ministry has assessed whether PSLE-based school placement at age 12 amplifies the SES-performance gap; (b) if so, what that assessment found; and (c) if no such assessment exists, whether the Ministry intends to conduct one.

Response

1. Mr Speaker, globally, our students from higher socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds tend to perform better academically than students from lower-income backgrounds. We have not studied, nor do we plan at this time to study, whether secondary school placement based on PSLE results amplifies this skew, as there are many factors that influence the academic performance of our students.
2. Instead, our focus is to help all our students achieve their full potential, regardless of background. This includes providing more support to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds, and also providing porosity in our education pathways, such as through Full Subject-Based Banding at the secondary level, to strengthen their education outcomes.