This update will come in 2 parts : the PSLE and P4 exams update and the post highschool update (aka the we are not really sure what we are doing update!)
So today, the PSLE and Primary 4 exam update.
Compulsory Education act requirements
When we first started homeschooling, the Ministry of Education (MOE) required all who seek exemption from the Compulsory Education Act to sit for the national level Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) the year the child turns 12, whereby the child has to clear a benchmark which is “pegged at the 33rd percentile of the aggregate score achieved by all merged-stream pupils who take the PSLE in the same year”. Please don’t ask me what this means because until today, I have no idea how it is calculated. I also don’t know how the PSLE T-score/aggregate scores are calculated. I just know that we need to clear the PSLE at a higher score than public-school children. And we need to make it into the express stream. This means that for the year 2015, a public schooled kid can score 180, clear PSLE and be accepted into a secondary school but a homeschooler cannot. He needs to score 197 or higher. In 2014 it was 199. If he/she cannot meet this benchmark, he/she will have to re-sit PSLE.
New requirements!
Then came 2014 when MOE decided to impose a new requirement on homeschoolers : all Primary 4 homeschooled children will have to take a Progress Exam, ostensibly to help us assess our child’s ability to clear the benchmark. Sounds good on paper but well, it really isn’t. In fact it hinders our homeschooling progress because each family is progressing at different rates and on top of that, may not be using the MOE prescribed curricula. This means, of course, that there is a high chance that child may “fail” the test, unless they they a break from their own curriculum to prepare for this test. Many homeschoolers who use other curricula often make the switch to local curriculum in anticipation of PSLE only either at Primary 5 or even Primary 6. So preparing for this new exam at Primary 4 is highly disruptive. And, on top of that, MOE schedules this exam 2 weeks before the PSLE! Sure, MOE tells us that failing this test will not result in our Certificate of Exemption being revoked. But think of the effect “failing” has on both the mother (usually the teacher) and the child.
Juggling both PSLE and the P4 exams
So for those who have children at a 2 year gap (like yours truly), we are caught having to prepare for both PSLE (P6) as well as this Progress Exam (P4), which I repeat, is held 2 weeks before PSLE. I had to do this in 2015 and will have to do this again in 2017 and 2019, unless Jesus comes first!
Thankfully, I made the decision a long time back that we will use the MOE curriculum because I absolutely cannot be sure that I will be able to cover the gaps if I should use other curricula and then switch over to prepare the child for PSLE. So in many ways, it wasn’t as stressful for me as with some other mothers. But still, having to prepare a child for an exam is always stressful – for Type A personalities 😜
PSLE expert?!
Now, everyone thinks that just because I have prepped and cleared 3 children for PSLE, I must be some expert.
No, no, no. No, I am not.
I know (sort of) what to expect but each child is so different. And each child throws up different challenges. Many times, I find myself struggling to know how to teach certain topics because topics that one or two child breezes through may be terribly hard to grasp for another. It’s just like breastfeeding. I know what to do and what to expect, but the baby doesn’t! He needs to learn to latch correctly and suckle properly.
Syllabus changes
And of course, to keep everyone on their toes, MOE would ever so often change their syllabus. For 2015, they decided to upgrade the English syllabus. It is not just content that was modified but way the test was structured. Both the oral and written papers were affected. We had to learn a new way of answering the Open Ended Comprehension section, as well as get used to a new format of tackling the Oral component.
Only by God’s grace
But by the mercies and grace of God, both children cleared what they had to clear and we can move on to the next academic year for the Primary 4 child and next season for the Primary 6 child. If my Primary 4 child did not clear the Progress Exam, MOE would dispatch officers to counsel us via a phone call or a face-to-face home visit, depending on how “bad” a fail the child gets.
4 down 3 more to go!
So now, I have graduated 4 PSLE kids. Just 3 more to go! Lol! And yes, the 12 year old has chosen to continue to homeschool and is using Abeka just like what the older 3 children did/are using. Mom cannot keep up with different curricula for different kid!
And that’s the update on PSLE and the P4 exams. Till the next time I face the same combo in 2017! 🙂