Sensei Michael

Our national language is Malay, as evidenced by the language of our national anthem, the language on our coat of arms and the language of our military commands. Singapore must be one of those few nations in the world where 70% of its population cannot speak its national language with any level of reasonable fluency.

The PSLE question that has parents crying foul - what is the weight of 8 $1 coins? 1) 6g 2) 60g 3) 600g 4) 6000g. "This is not a Math question!" Yes it is. Math is more than just arithmetics and pushing numbers around. Our Mathematical syllabus includes Estimation and Tessellation (both taught at Primary 5), as well as patterns and Geometry (taught since Primary 1). "How many children have an idea how much a coin weigh? This is unfair!" It is not. Children should have already gone through an activity at either Primary 2 or 3 on Weight, where they have to weigh coins and other objects and got to understand what the various weight is like. Ultimately, the PSLE is an exam meant to stream out the scholars from the farmers. The ability to answer certain questions would stream out those meant to be at the top. We seriously need to let our children know that it is not the end of the world if their PSLE score is not the most fantastic in the world, and to teach them resilie