SINGAPORE : St Nicholas Girls’ School wants to offer a course on translation as an ’O’ Level subject come 2012, provided the Ministry of Education approves its proposal submitted on Thursday.

SINGAPORE: Girl power prevails in this year’s Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results.

Pupils will be collecting their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results from their respective primary schools today after 1200 hours.

Performance of 2008 Cohort1 2

A total of 49,856 Primary 6 pupils sat for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) this year, an increase of 39 (or 0.1%) over the 2007 cohort. Of these, 5299 were from the EM3 course. All pupils sat for English, Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue except for pupils in the EM3 course who sat for Foundation English, Foundation Mathematics and Basic Mother Tongue or Mother Tongue.

In all, 48,424 pupils (or 97.1%) have been assessed as suitable to proceed to secondary school. Of these pupils, 63.6% are eligible for the Express course, 21.6% for the Normal (Academic) and 12.0% for the Normal (Technical) course.

There are 1,432 pupils (or 2.9%) who are assessed to not yet be ready for secondary school in 2009 or more suited for vocational training. Of these, pupils who have attempted PSLE once and are not overage can choose to apply to Assumption Pathway School (APS) or Northlight School (NLS) based on recommendations of their primary school principals, or spend another year in Primary 6 to consolidate their learning. The remaining pupils will be offered a place in APS or NLS.

2008 Secondary One (S1) Posting Exercise

Eligible pupils will receive their sealed option forms to select secondary schools from their respective primary schools today. Parents can submit the school choices for their child on-line via the Secondary One Internet System (S1-IS) that is accessible 24 hours from 12.00 noon on 20 Nov 2008 to 3.00 pm on 26 Nov 2008. Alternatively, parents may also submit their child’s secondary school options through their child’s primary school. Submission at the primary schools will be from 12.00 noon to 3.00 pm on 20 Nov 2008; and 9.00 am to 3.00 pm on 21, 24, 25 and 26 Nov 2008.

The S1 posting results will be released on 18 Dec 2008. Pupils are to report to their posted secondary schools at 8.30 am on 19 Dec 2008.

Footnotes:

1. For further details on the top performing PSLE students and schools with good progress in PSLE results, please refer to the attached “Information Sheet on the 2008 PSLE Results”. ↵
2. For the performance of students exempted from the Compulsory Education Act, please refer to the attached “Information Sheet on the 2008 PSLE Results of Students Exempted from Compulsory Education”. ↵

Useful Links

• Secondary One Posting Exercise

SINGAPORE : Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said China can resume its rapid growth of between 10 and 12 percent when the world economy recovers, and the country will be an important market and trading partner for Singapore.

SINGAPORE: Education Minister and Second Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen is in Indonesia on a two—day visit.

The results of the 2008 Primary School Leaving Examination (Release of 2008 PSLE) will be released on Thursday, 20 Nov 2008. Pupils may obtain their result slips from their respective schools from 12.00 noon on 20 Nov 2008.

On the same day, eligible pupils will also receive their option forms to select secondary schools from their respective primary schools. Pupils are required to hand the option forms to their parents.

Submission of Secondary One Option Form

In every sealed option form there will be a unique Secondary One Personal Identification Number (S1 PIN) which allows parents to submit the school choices for their child on-line via the Secondary One Internet System (S1-IS). The S1-IS is accessible 24 hours through the MOE Secondary One Posting website starting from 12.00 noon on 20 Nov 2008 to 3.00 pm on 26 Nov 2008.

Parents are strongly encouraged to carefully consider and complete the option form before logging on to the S1-IS, so that they can complete their on-line submission quickly and smoothly.

Alternatively, parents may also submit their child’s secondary school options through their child’s primary school. Submission at the primary schools will be from 12.00 noon to 3.00 pm on 20 Nov 2008; and 9.00 am to 3.00 pm on 21, 24, 25 and 26 Nov 2008.

Release of Secondary One Posting Results

The Secondary One posting results will be released on 18 Dec 2008. This year, parents will be able to receive the posting results through an additional channel, via SMS text messaging. To receive the SMS, parents just need to provide a local mobile phone number during the submission of their child’s school choices, either on-line via the S1-IS or at the child’s primary school.

Parents will thus be able to receive their child’s posting results through any of the following channels:

• S1-IS
• The Interactive Voice Response System (Tel: 6691-2066)
• Going to the child’s primary school
• SMS text messaging

Pupils are to report to their posted secondary schools on 19 Dec 2008 at 8.30 am.

For more information on the Secondary One Posting Exercise and S1-IS, parents can refer to the MOE Secondary One Posting website or Part One of the information booklet entitled “Choosing Your Secondary Schools” which had earlier been distributed to parents. For enquiries, parents can call the MOE Customer Service Centre at 6872-2220 during office hours.

SINGAPORE: FOR the first nine years of his life, the people in Thanh’s village called him "Sut" — which means "split lip" in Vietnamese — as a result of his cleft lip. On his first day of school, he was teased so badly by the other children that he refused to go back.

SINGAPORE: Students hoping to earn some pocket money by working part—time during the school holidays will face some unlikely competition this year — from the newly retrenched.

A teacher displays DIR instructional materials on a screen projection.

This is the eighth article in Schoolbag’s series of 10 features on the new primary school Chinese Language curriculum. Read the previous ones here. An earlier version of this article was published in Lianhe Zaobao on 8 May 2007. For a Chinese version of this article, click here. Using mobile phones and computers, and surfing the Internet are second nature for children today. They grow up playing and communicating with friends and family using all sorts of digital devices. So it’s no surprise that when these same children enter the classroom, they readily learn through information technology (ICT). Leveraging on this interest, MOE has developed a comprehensive set of Digital Instructional Resources (DIR) to help teachers use IT in Chinese Language teaching. Designed to make learning more interesting for pupils, these wide-ranging interactive multimedia materials cover various aspects of the curriculum and complement the content of existing textbooks and activity books.

Pupils hold up beautifully decorated written work.

This is the seventh article in Schoolbag’s series of 10 features on the new primary school Chinese Language curriculum. Read the previous ones here. An earlier version of this article was published in Lianhe Zaobao on 1 May 2007. For a Chinese version of this article, click here. How can you write if you know neither the words nor what to write about? The ability to pen your thoughts is vital to mastering any language, including Chinese. But before a child can do so, he or she must be able to recognise the characters that make up the language, as well as understand how to use them in speech and writing. That is why the new Chinese Language curriculum seeks an appropriate balance in its emphases on reading, writing, listening and speaking. Far from neglecting written composition, the curriculum provides a firm grounding in the skills needed to write in Chinese, be it letters to loved ones or sharing personal stories in essays.