| Sleepy Bear Bear
Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,825 Gender: 
Total SGC$: 146.71 |  Maths formula goes wrong as A+B-C = D/E
PSLE RESULTS
Maths formula goes wrong as A+B-C = D/E
After only 8 in class of 20 pass maths, school says: Things could have been handled better
ONLY 40 per cent of the class of 20 passed mathematics. The highest score was a B grade, with one student scoring a U (ungraded) result. These are the Primary School Leaving Examination results of a class of students at St Joseph's Institution (SJI) Junior.
The New Paper reported a month ago that the teacher of this weak class did not focus enough on section C of the maths paper during the preliminary exams, and concentrated on sections A and B, to the displeasure of some parents.
Responding to the poor PSLE mathematics results, Brother Michael Broughton, who is the Brother Supervisor of the Christian Brothers' Schools (Singapore),said: 'There was communication between parents and other teachers of that class.
'But there was not enough communication between the maths teacher and the parents, which resulted in a lot of unhappiness for the parents.
'In hindsight, things could've been handled better.'
Several disgruntled parents blamed the poor results on the strategy used by the maths teacher of the class. One of them was a 46-year-old sales coordinator, whose 12-year-old son was among the 18 students who failed the preliminary maths paper.
For the PSLE, he scored an aggregate of 154 for four subjects - a B for English, E for Chinese language, D for mathematics and C for science.
Looking distressed, she told The New Paper: 'On one hand, I am relieved that he will be going to secondary school. On the other hand, I am upset.
'He is very disheartened because the subject affected his overall aggregate. My son could've done better if only the maths teacher had focused more on section C.'
Section C of the paper carries 50 marks and is on problem sums.
Section A involves multiple-choice questions and section B has short-answer questions.
Another parent, a 40-something housewife, felt the same way. Her son, who had an aggregate of 163, scored a C for maths.
She said: 'If my son could tackle the problem sums, he could make it to the Express stream.'
TUTORING
One parent, a property agent, said he will be tutoring his son in mathematics during the school holidays.
He said: 'There is a lot of catching up to do. He can't be in secondary school and not know how to tackle a Primary 6 problem-sum.'
SJI Junior principal, Mrs Sara de Souza, said that eight students out of the class of 20 passed the mathematics PSLE paper.
This means that 60 per cent of that class failed the subject. She added: 'A total of 15 students saw an improvement in their maths PSLE grades compared to their performance in the prelims.
One student can opt for the Express class while the rest were eligible for the Normal stream in Secondary 1.'
There is no minimum aggregate score for a posting to secondary school. The cut-off aggregate for Express and Normal streams vary from year to year.
Last month, the subject became a bone of contention between the school and parents.
A week before the PSLE, some parents found out that 18 out of 20 in class failed their maths prelim paper in August. Two parents wrote to the Ministry of Education to lodge complaints, blaming the maths teacher for the emphasis on sections A and B.
For the prelims, the students fared poorly in section C, which affected their overall score for the subject.
On 1 Nov, eight parents met with Brother Broughton at SJI Junior with the school principal. A first meeting with the school on 11 Oct saw a few parents walking out because they did not accept its rationale for focusing on sections A and B.
Brother Broughton said: 'During the meeting, I wanted the school to understand where the parents were coming from, and for the parents to understand why the teacher focused more on sections A and B.'
The parents found the meeting with Brother Broughton fruitful.
One 51-year-old parent, an events coordinator, said: 'All we wanted was someone to listen to why we were kicking up a fuss over the maths teaching methods. Brother Broughton addressed the issue which gave us some sort of closure to the episode.'
Overall SJI Junior saw improvements in several areas.
Mrs de Souza said: 'SJI Junior saw an improvement for students who scored As and A*s in five subjects, as well as improvement in the pass rate in three subjects, with English maintaining a 100 per cent pass.'
She added: 'There was an 88.8 per cent pass rate for mathematics and a 55.9 per cent quality pass rate for students who scored As or A*s, which is 2.1 per cent improvement from last year.
'All our students qualified for secondary school.'
PSLE RESULTS PERFORMANCE OF 2007 PSLE COHORT
# Total of 49,817 primary 6 students sat for PSLE - a 1.6 per cent decrease over 2006 cohort.
# 48,665 students or 97.7 per cent eligible for secondary school.
# Of these, 63.5 per cent eligible for Express course, 22.2 per cent for Normal (Academic) and 12 per cent for Normal (Technical) course.
Source: Ministry of Education
Source : ONLY 40 per cent of the class of 20 passed mathematics. The highest score was a B grade, with one student scoring a U (ungraded) result. These are the Primary School Leaving Examination results of a class of students at St Joseph's Institution (SJI) Junior.
Click to see larger image
One of the disgruntled parents. -- Picture: DAVID TAN
The New Paper reported a month ago that the teacher of this weak class did not focus enough on section C of the maths paper during the preliminary exams, and concentrated on sections A and B, to the displeasure of some parents.
Responding to the poor PSLE mathematics results, Brother Michael Broughton, who is the Brother Supervisor of the Christian Brothers' Schools (Singapore),said: 'There was communication between parents and other teachers of that class.
'But there was not enough communication between the maths teacher and the parents, which resulted in a lot of unhappiness for the parents.
'In hindsight, things could've been handled better.'
Several disgruntled parents blamed the poor results on the strategy used by the maths teacher of the class. One of them was a 46-year-old sales coordinator, whose 12-year-old son was among the 18 students who failed the preliminary maths paper.
For the PSLE, he scored an aggregate of 154 for four subjects - a B for English, E for Chinese language, D for mathematics and C for science.
Looking distressed, she told The New Paper: 'On one hand, I am relieved that he will be going to secondary school. On the other hand, I am upset.
'He is very disheartened because the subject affected his overall aggregate. My son could've done better if only the maths teacher had focused more on section C.'
Section C of the paper carries 50 marks and is on problem sums.
Section A involves multiple-choice questions and section B has short-answer questions.
Another parent, a 40-something housewife, felt the same way. Her son, who had an aggregate of 163, scored a C for maths.
She said: 'If my son could tackle the problem sums, he could make it to the Express stream.'
TUTORING
One parent, a property agent, said he will be tutoring his son in mathematics during the school holidays.
He said: 'There is a lot of catching up to do. He can't be in secondary school and not know how to tackle a Primary 6 problem-sum.'
SJI Junior principal, Mrs Sara de Souza, said that eight students out of the class of 20 passed the mathematics PSLE paper.
This means that 60 per cent of that class failed the subject. She added: 'A total of 15 students saw an improvement in their maths PSLE grades compared to their performance in the prelims.
One student can opt for the Express class while the rest were eligible for the Normal stream in Secondary 1.'
There is no minimum aggregate score for a posting to secondary school. The cut-off aggregate for Express and Normal streams vary from year to year.
Last month, the subject became a bone of contention between the school and parents.
A week before the PSLE, some parents found out that 18 out of 20 in class failed their maths prelim paper in August. Two parents wrote to the Ministry of Education to lodge complaints, blaming the maths teacher for the emphasis on sections A and B.
For the prelims, the students fared poorly in section C, which affected their overall score for the subject.
On 1 Nov, eight parents met with Brother Broughton at SJI Junior with the school principal. A first meeting with the school on 11 Oct saw a few parents walking out because they did not accept its rationale for focusing on sections A and B.
Brother Broughton said: 'During the meeting, I wanted the school to understand where the parents were coming from, and for the parents to understand why the teacher focused more on sections A and B.'
The parents found the meeting with Brother Broughton fruitful.
One 51-year-old parent, an events coordinator, said: 'All we wanted was someone to listen to why we were kicking up a fuss over the maths teaching methods. Brother Broughton addressed the issue which gave us some sort of closure to the episode.'
Overall SJI Junior saw improvements in several areas.
Mrs de Souza said: 'SJI Junior saw an improvement for students who scored As and A*s in five subjects, as well as improvement in the pass rate in three subjects, with English maintaining a 100 per cent pass.'
She added: 'There was an 88.8 per cent pass rate for mathematics and a 55.9 per cent quality pass rate for students who scored As or A*s, which is 2.1 per cent improvement from last year.
'All our students qualified for secondary school.'
PSLE RESULTS PERFORMANCE OF 2007 PSLE COHORT
# Total of 49,817 primary 6 students sat for PSLE - a 1.6 per cent decrease over 2006 cohort.
# 48,665 students or 97.7 per cent eligible for secondary school.
# Of these, 63.5 per cent eligible for Express course, 22.2 per cent for Normal (Academic) and 12 per cent for Normal (Technical) course.
Source: Ministry of Education |
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