Here's why PSLE maths must be tough

Here's why PSLE maths must be tough AS EXPECTED, this year's Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) mathematics paper evoked an emotional outcry from some parents, as was the case in previous years. It will not be the last time either.

Some students cannot solve mathematics problems because of lack of aptitude or attitude. Some can solve only the types of problems they have been taught to solve, and using only prescribed methods. Only a few can solve new types of problems using original methods.

Every exam, especially a public one, should identify these three categories. Complaints will naturally come from the second but for the good of Singapore and the really gifted, the third must be discovered and nurtured. Parents may cry foul but how can there be unfairness when all pupils sit for the same papers?

Should fairness be such that every pupil is eventually classified as 'average'? Fairness should give every student an equal chance to learn and do his best; it should not decapitate those who are head and shoulders above the rest.

We should be realistic enough to realise that equal opportunity does not mean, and should never produce, equal achievement, painful as this may be to accept personally.

What is unfortunate is that in Singapore, a student's future is so often determined by just one exam.Some flowers which blossom late can also be of matchless beauty. Not doing well in any exam does not necessarily mean a student is inherently poor in that subject.

On the other hand, good exam grades may only be due to the mastery of examination techniques. Is a student good at maths and science? Only time will tell. Some parents complain that if they, as adults, cannot solve the maths questions posed in this year's PSLE, how can one expect a child to do so. Well, it all depends on the adult or the child. Or how about another common complaint, that the maths poser was phrased in language which was so hard to understand when the exam was not to test a pupil's English skill?

Well, there is no such thing as an exam of maths only. The PSLE maths paper is an exam on maths in English. We cannot divorce any subject from the linguistic medium used, whether it is in maths or any other subject.One should aim high and climb hard, but one should not expect the mountain top to be whittled away for one's benefit.

Ee Teck Ee