Junior Colleges were once officially ranked but the listing was scrapped in 2004. There is currently an official banding system used by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to judge the overall standard of Secondary Schools across Singapore, but none on Primary Schools. Bearing in mind that primary education lays the foundation for every individual’s academic path and is therefore of paramount importance, it begs the question of why isn’t there an official ranking for primary schools.
Albeit not to the extent of the notorious Tiger Mum, Singaporean parents are notorious for being competitive and “kiasu”. We are naturally curious about the quality of schools our children go to. In any case, it is always good to have a rough idea of how your child’s primary school is performing and whether your child is standing in good stead, education wise.
At theAsianparent.com, we have done the work for you. We trawled through mountains of data from MOE and compiled for you a ranking based on the MOE awards conferred to the primary schools in the past 6 years. Awards are appropriate yardsticks to measure how well a school is doing as it reflects the effort the school has put in to nurture its students and received due recognition for.
Level One Awards are given to schools to affirm their achievements in certain domains in at least a single year, while Level Two Awards recognise schools for their sustained excellence in specific areas. The Special Awards recognise schools’ holistic efforts in establishing outstanding education processes and obtaining excellent outcomes.
School Excellence Award (SEA)
The SEA recognizes schools for their excellence in both education processes and outcomes. It is the highest and most prestigious award and serves as a mark of distinction for schools that have sustained achievements in a wide spectrum of student development processes. This award is highly difficult to achieve and once achieved by a school, it usually lasts for a few years before it expires.
School Distinction Award (SDA)
The SDA recognises high-achieving schools with exemplary school processes and practices. It is the second highest award conferred to schools. Similar to SEA, the SDA lasts for a few years before it expires.
Sustained Achievement Award (SAA)
The SAA recognises schools’ ability in sustaining good outcomes over a number of years, in 3 areas: Aesthetics, Sports and Physical Health. Schools need to achieve an Achievement Award in the same category over 3 consecutive years before they are awarded the SAA.
Development Award (DA) and Outstanding Development Award (ODA) for Character Development
The DA recognizes schools that have put in place systems and processes for the effective development of students’ character. The ODA recognizes schools with innovative, sustainable and exemplary approaches to character development.
Development Award (DA) and Outstanding Development Award (ODA) for National Education
The National Education Awards recognise schools for their national education efforts. There are two levels of attainment for the National Education Awards: Development Award (DA) and Outstanding Development Award (ODA). The attainment of the level of award depends on how well a school meets the evaluation criteria.
From the winners of the Outstanding Development Award for National Education, a maximum of 2 award recipients, one for the Primary School category and another for the Secondary School and Junior College/Centralised Institute category, will be selected for the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) National Education (NE) Award. Introduced in 2002, this award recognises schools that have excelled in their national education efforts in imbuing our students with a strong sense of national identity and social responsibility. It is the pinnacle of the National Education Awards.
Best Practice Award (BPA)
The Best Practice Award (BPA) recognizes schools for their effective practices and systems that lead to good education outcomes in both academic and non-academic areas. There are 4 categories for the BPA: Organisational Effectiveness, Student All-Round Development, Staff Well-Being, and Teaching and Learning.
As of now, only 21 primary schools in Singapore have attained at least one Special Award. Without a doubt, these are the crème de la crème of primary schools in Singapore
The table shown below are the top 21 primary schools in Singapore:
Raffles Girls’ Primary School
Rulang Primary School
St. Hilda’s Primary School
Ai Tong School
Catholic High School
CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School
Chongfu School
Gongshang Primary School
Henry Park Primary School
Kong Hwa Primary School
Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School
Marist Stella High School
Methodist Girls’ School
Nanyang Primary School
Pasir Ris Primary School*
Pei Chun Public School
Radin Mas Primary School
Rosyth School
Tampines Primary School
Tao Nan School
Temasek Primary School
These are what our parents shared about the primary school rankings on our facebook page.
Ther Asian Parent
By Low Heng Jing | February 1, 2011
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