Education Minister Chan Chun Sing questions need to eliminate PSLE, says changing mindsets more critical

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing questioned the value and viability of eliminating "high stakes" examinations such as the PSLE or the introduction of ten-year through-train schools.

He said that while the Ministry of Education was "open to considering new ideas", the proposals did not address fundamental concerns that went beyond that of the school system.

He was speaking at MOE's 2025 Committee of Supply debate on Mar. 6.

Through-train

Several Members of Parliaments, including Denise Phua, MP for Jalan Besar GRC, had asked about the possibility of removing the Primary School Leaving Examinations and considerations for replacing it with a ten-year integrated "through-train" program

Chan began by thanking fellow MPs for their suggestions, saying that MOE was constantly challenging itself, relooking assumptions, and considering new ideas taken from multiple sources, including MP suggestions, the public, and even experiences of other countries.

"But our approach must first correctly define the problem before we go into solutioning".

Noting that suggestions about  "through-train" schools, schools that take students directly from Primary to Secondary education, eliminating streaming examinations such as the PSLE, were not new.

Other countries had attempted it with mixed results, and Chan suggested that affiliated schools in Singapore were a "variant of this idea".

Chan questioned if the various goals sought by other MPs, such as stress reduction, freeing up time for "other dimensions of growth, or for the promotion of social mixing, or "all the above and more?", could really be achieved by the proposal.

"For example, stress: are we stressed because we cannot meet the standards we set for ourselves and our children?

Or are we stressed because we want to keep up with others in a rat race?"

Mindsets

He questioned if removing the PSLE would lead to the desired outcomes, suggesting that removing the examination without changing mindsets would instead redirect focus to another exam or metric, such as the O-Level examinations.

Should Singapore be able to change such mindsets to "respect and pursue diverse strengths," would Singapore still need to "focus narrowly on having or removing a single exam?"

There were also many operational and non-trivial issues that a hypothetical through-train program needed to address.

For example, who would decide who gets to join such a program or who might be required to leave?

Chan emphasised that there was no perfect system for meeting "everyone's desires and needs", but MOE tried its best to provide "every child with education option meets his or her needs".

"I'd like to share a slogan that is close to my heart, and this is called 'for every child, a good school; at every age, a good learner."

"For every child, a good school", Chan explained, meant that "we put our children at the centre of all we do", rather than chasing "what other people desire as a popular school".

Chan said that MOE had embarked on "multiple pathways of success", pursuing a "porous and continuous meritocracy" where "everyone can pivot and pursue different options as they progress in life" rather than being defined by a single high-stakes exam.

Thus, MOE reduced the exam load and changed the L1R5 to L1R4.

Chan also said that this was behind having a more open Primary one registration process, balancing building a school culture and tradition with "a more egalitarian ethos and culture of being non-exclusive that we so cherish as Singaporeans".

Trilemma

Chan believed that with the science of learning and the technology and data that was available, Singapore had the "best chance in history" to break the public education trilemma: the achievement of quality, skill, and affordability at the same time.

He urged MPs to focus on changing mindsets as MOE evolved its policies and programs.

He believed such a mindset change was possible and had spoken about this in several previous speeches, such as at the 2025 Institute of Policy Studies Singapore Perspectives conference.

"We can do it, and we need these two to move in tandem, changing structures and processes with the changing of cultures and mindsets."

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Top image via MDDI/YouTube