Primary School Leaving Examination

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Education and taken by all students near the end of their sixth year in primary school before they move on to secondary school. The examination test students' proficiency in the English language, their respective mother tongue languages (typically Chinese, Malay, Tamil), mathematics and science. Students have around 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 Singapore education system gives it a part in national culture. PSLE material has also been exported to other countries. Some schools abroad (such as National High Jakarta School in Jakarta, Indonesia), 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, he 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 thePSLE 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. The format of the examinations within the PSLE has been revised consistently throughout its history to suit the Ministry of Education's policy. However, the standard examination procedure has retained many of the same elements throughout the years despite changes being made to the requirements of each question, the score allocated to each question and the revisions in emphasis.