SINGAPORE: Singapore will no longer publish the names of top scorers in national student examinations to reduce academic pressure on children but the move has drawn mixed reactions, press reports said yesterday.
When the results of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) are released yesterday, the annual ritual of hailing the top scorers in the media will no longer take place.
An education ministry spokesman told the Straits Times that the move was aimed at showing pupils and parents that academic performance was “just one aspect of a student’s overall development and progress.”
The ministry will also stop naming top scorers in the secondary school national examinations.
Like many East Asian societies, Singapore puts strong emphasis on education but a traditional obsession with test scores has been blamed for stressing out students and parents, as well as fostering memorisation instead of creative and critical thinking. — AFP