18 May 2019
When 19-year-old Singapore students were recently asked about streaming in the ST-SUSS survey, as many as sixty percent felt it was appropriate for students to be routed into different streams at the Secondary School level.
Those from the junior colleges and Integrated Programme schools favoured streaming more strongly than those from the polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education.
However, eighty percent of the respondents voiced concerns over examination stress, even as a large majority of them felt that national exams must remain.
It was also found that parents were more stressed out over exams and streaming, while students themselves saw examinations as an appropriate way to classify students.
National Institute of Education Associate Professor Jason Tan was not surprised at the findings. “Their views on streaming, exams, and reasons for wanting a degree, all show that they are a very pragmatic lot. I am not surprised that they support streaming and exams – they probably see exams as a fair, objective way to sort students,” he said.