Singaporean government has announced the elimination of the long-standing ranking system for primary and secondary school students to promote a culture of learning.
Starting next year, report cards will no longer include a student’s class ranking, according to a report from Citi Newsroom. Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has justified this decision, stating that it aims to reinforce the idea that “learning is not a competition”.
Reports will no longer display the information like class and level averages, minimum and maximum marks, underlining or color-coding of failing grades, pass/fail status for end-of-year results, mean grades for individual subjects and overall total marks.
In a statement, the education ministry explained that the motive behind the decision is to encourage students to concentrate on their individual learning growth and reduce their preoccupation with comparisons. Furthermore, starting next year, exams for primary 1 and 2 students will be eliminated.
As an alternative, teachers will collect information about students’ learning progress through discussions, homework, and quizzes. At these two levels, schools will use qualitative descriptors instead of marks and grades to assess student progress. For older students, their marks will be rounded off before being reported.
In parent-teacher meetings, information on the child’s progress in school will still be provided. Education Minister Ong Ye Kung acknowledged that being in the top two positions of a class or level has been a source of pride for students, but emphasized that the removal of these indicators is meant to instill in children the understanding that learning is not a competition but a lifelong skill.
Ong also stated that the report book should still provide some form of benchmarking and information for students to evaluate their performance and identify areas for improvement.
