Primary School Leaving Examination

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a national examination that is administered by Singapore Examination and Assessment Board (SEAB) on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MOE). It is taken by all Primary 6 students at the end of the year before they progress to secondary school. The examination test students' proficiency in the English language, their respective mother tongue languages (typically Chinese, Malay or Tamil), mathematics and science. Students have about two hours to complete each subject paper except for certain components of language subjects. Students answer multiple choice questions by shading their responses on a standardised optical answer sheet (OAS) that uses optical mark recognition to detect answers or by writing their workings and/or answers on the question booklet itself for certain sections of the paper.

The format of the PSLE and the presence of it in the education system gives it a part in national culture. PSLE material has also been exported to other countries. Some schools abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia, India and China, have their pupils sit the international version of the exam, the iPSLE, to provide a benchmark of their performance, compared to Singapore's standards.

In March 2018, calls for the removal of the PSLE was rejected in parliament by then Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, who cited it as a "useful checkpoint" in a child's education journey. On 28 September 2018, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung reiterated his stance on keeping the PSLE while announcing that the ministry will remove several mid-year and year-end exams across the board from primary one up to secondary four with the aim of reducing assessments based on exam results and to encourage students to be an all rounder.

Examination subjects

All Primary 6 students will usually take the following subjects:

1. English Language
2. Mathematics
3. Science
4. Mother Tongue
5. Higher Mother Tongue (for higher ability students only)

• Foundation subject may be taken in lieu of standard subject for lower ability students.

The following are the examination format and code published by Singapore Examination and Assessment Board.

Subject Code	Subject Title
0001 [1]	English
0005 [2]	Chinese
0006 [3]	Malay
0007 [4]	Tamil
0008 [5]	Mathematics
0009 [6]	Science
0015 [7]	Higher Chinese
0016 [8]	Higher Malay
0017 [9]	Higher Tamil
0025 [10]	Foundation Chinese
0026 [11]	Foundation Malay
0027 [12]	Foundation Tamil
0031 [13]	Foundation English
0038 [14]	Foundation Mathematics
0039 [15]	Foundation Science

Scoring and post-examination procedure

Although the students have an absolute score, each student's absolute score are compared with other students in order to yield an aggregate score, and the students are ranked according to that basis. This allows the examination to accommodate for overly easy or overly difficult questions. Typically aggregate scores range from 0 to 300. In 2007 and 2010 coincidentally, for example, the highest ever aggregate score for the PSLE was 294 and the lowest aggregate score was 43.

All examination scripts are shipped to the Ministry of Education for processing, which then sends them to other teachers in Singapore on a random basis for marking. Part of this procedure is to prevent possible bias in marking, either intentional or unintentional, that may result when teachers mark examination scripts of students from their own schools. The multiple choice questions are graded by machines in the Ministry of Education, which reads the OAS sheets.

Pupils who fail the PSLE would be retained in primary school to retake the PSLE in the EM3 stream the following year.

Pupils who pass are required to choose up to six secondary schools to which they would be posted by aggregate score. A computer will then allocate slots to each school's intake for the next year. In line with the ideals of meritocracy, all pupils who attempted the PSLE would be "queued" in order of merit, with the places in schools being filled up from the highest scorer to the lowest scorer. Thus the pupil with a higher aggregate score would get into his school of second choice (if he was not accepted into his school of first choice) over a pupil with a lower aggregate score who chose the same school as the first choice. The score of the last pupil who was allocated is known as the cut-off score for the school for that year.

If none of the six schools chosen accept the pupil, the Ministry of Education will work towards finding a school that based on proximity and location, rather than academic excellence of the school, without consulting the student. This makes proper selection of the six choices important. Priority organisation of the choices is also important; if the pupil's score both meets the requirements of the school of his or her third choice and second choice for example, the second choice will be allocated without the pupil being able to change his or her decisions.

Before 2003, pupils picked their choices before they took the examination and received their score. From 2003, pupils picked their choices after they received their score, after complaints by parents they could not make informed choices about their children's secondary schools before the examination scores were received, as the pupils might perform much better or much worse than expected.

History and past performance

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) was modeled after the British eleven plus exam (11+) and was first conducted in 1960. Its predecessor was the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE), which was conceived in 1952 when it was known as the Standard Six Entrance Examination up to 1954 and then as Secondary School Entrance Examination when the primary school classes were no longer named as Primary 1 and 2 and the standard 1 to 5 and started from Primary 1 to 6 instead. Promotion was to Form 2 in the secondary school instead of the previous Standard Six starting from January 1955, during the early days of self-government.

Though complaints were made about the 2007 PSLE Papers being out of syllabus and too challenging, this continued in the 2008 PSLE Paper.

Performance

In 2005, 51,077 pupils sat for the examination, a 0.4% increase from the previous year. The majority (or roughly 97.8%) of the pupils qualified for secondary school. 62.2% of those who passed were eligible for the Special (Integrated Programme or The International Baccalaureate) or the Express stream (Either one for 4 years only) and the remaining 35.6% were eligible for either the Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) courses (Either one for 4 years). 1163 pupils (2.3%) of the cohort assessed were not ready for secondary school in 2006 or were more suited for vocational training.

39,286 students sat for the PSLE in 2015. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said that a total of 38,610 students (98.3 %) were eligible for secondary school. 66.2 % of the pupils qualified for the Express stream, 21.7 % for Normal (Academic), and 10.4 % qualified for Normal (Technical). The remaining 1.7% did not qualify for the three streams and were offered choices to retake the examination or to move on to specialised vocational schools.

Controversy on flaws in papers

The 2005 mathematics paper for EM1 and EM2 students was flawed due to a question having no definite method of working the answer out. The "Question 13" was spotted by many and became infamous. The question was mathematically inconsistent in that one will get one set of answers when worked out one way and another set of answers when worked out by a different method. The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) acknowledged the mistake a few days after the examination, annulling the question and awarding 2 marks to every student for the question.

Controversy on withholding of result slips

In 2019, public debate arose concerning the practice of withholding PSLE result slips from students for failing to pay school fees. This ensued after news claiming that a student was withheld her PSLE result slip, due to being unable to pay school fees, circulated widely on social media. Subsequently, then Education Minister Ong Ye Kung asked for the Ministry of Education to re-evaluate the practice of withholding PSLE result slips from students due to unpaid school fees.

Other methods of admission to secondary schools

Students have the choice to go to other schools which does not use the posting system. Some of the top schools and the government schools have Direct School Admission. Some can go to other schools such as Singapore Sports School, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science or School of the Arts (SOTA).

Direct School Admission

Independent schools and Autonomous schools can admit up to 20% and 10% of their students via the Direct School Admission scheme (abb. DSA) respectively. Students apply through exercises conducted by the schools around July and August, receiving notice of the results shortly after. Schools offering the Integrated Programme can take in as many students as they want via DSA. Other schools have also been granted permission by the Ministry to take in students specialising in the schools' niche areas up to a maximum of 5% of their total student intake.

International schools

Since 2004, two international schools were given licenses to operate under the Ministry of Education's compulsory practices such as playing the National Anthem, and following the nation's bilingual policies, to allow Singaporean or Singapore Permanent Resident students to enter without the Ministry's permission. These schools were granted the permission in April 2004 and started the school year in January 2005. They are Anglo-Chinese School (International) and Hwa Chong International. Another school was granted the permission to set up a school similar to the original two in 2006, the school is SJI International which offers a similar programme to ACS (International).

Singapore Sports School

The Singapore Sports School is for students who are perceived by the school to excel in sports it offers. This includes swimming, badminton, table tennis, football/soccer, golf, track and field and sailing. It was opened in January 2004 and the school takes students directly into the school provided they have an active background in the sports offered by the school. When the school had its first intake, many students applied who were judged to excel in their sport but were posted to the Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) streams. The school rejected these pupils as the school sought pupils who excelled both physically and academically. The school was criticised for being too result wise instead of grooming them into future sportsmen. Some of the students were finally accepted on an appeal basis after that. Students in the school aim for the International Baccalaureate (IB) paper as it is less strenuous in comparison to the A Levels, allowing the students to focus on their sports, the Singapore Arts School follows similarly.

NUS High School

The NUS High School of Mathematics and Science opened in 2005 with an intake of 225 Secondary 1 and 3 students, offering a six-year programme leading to the NUS High Diploma. Students will also sit for Advanced Placement and Scholastic Assessment Test examinations in the senior years for benchmarks for admission into foreign universities. The school offers an accelerated mathematics and science curriculum based on a modular system, also offering languages, humanities, arts, and other elective subjects integrated into its modular system. Students are admitted based on several factors, performance in an application form, interviews, tests, and an admission camp. 25 places out of the 170 places offered in 2007 are also reserved for Primary 6 students wishing to apply with their PSLE results.

School of Science and Technology, Singapore

The School of Science and Technology, Singapore (SST) opened its doors to its first batch of students at its holding site in 2009. The first batch of students will start their lessons in 2010 at the holding site, and at 2012, the school was shifted to the permanent site along Commonwealth Ave West.