Banding for secondary schools and academic awards to be removed: MOE
SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Education (MOE) has announced that it will
be doing away with both the school banding system as well as the giving
out of school awards based on sustained academic achievements. These
moves were announced at the MOE workplan seminar yesterday by Minister
for Education Heng Swee Keat and aim to shift the emphasis of schooling
away from academic results.
The banding concept, first
introduced in 2004, saw secondary schools being grouped with other
schools which achieved similar 'O' levels scores into nine broad bands.
This concept replaced the earlier model of school rankings, which had
been criticised for encouraging a single-minded focus on academic
achievements.
Mr Heng said that banding of schools will be
removed as "there is no single yardstick of to measure how 'good' our
schools are".
He added that awards such as the School
Excellence Award and Sustained Achievement Award, as well as the
Academic Value-added awards, will be removed from 2014. These awards,
which have been in place since 1998 to recognise schools for their
academic and non-academic achievements, will be replaced by internal
monitoring instead.
In order to continue to identify
schools for their strengths, MOE will still recognise schools according
to five broad categories: Best Practice in Teaching and Learning, Best
Practice in Student All-Rounded Development, Best Practice in Staff
Development and Well Being and two new categories of Best Practice in
Character and Citizenship Education and Best Practice in Partnership.
In line with MOE's call to involve parents in their child's
education, Mr Heng also launched a new Parents in Education website
yesterday - containing information ranging from parenting tips to
education initiatives. More resources will also be provided to schools
such as best practices on engaging parents and the community, he said.
Mr Heng, who is leading Singapore's ongoing national conversation,
added that MOE will be holding dialogues with educators, parents and
students to envision the future of the Singapore's education system.