Singapore eliminated the outdated primary and secondary school exam ranking system in a decision that was widely hailed. As a result, report cards will no longer indicate a student’s standing within a class or cohort.
The report book will also not include any class or level averages, minimum and maximum marks, failing mark underlining or colouring, pass/fail for end-of-year results, mean subject grades, overall total marks, or L1R5 (English plus five relevant subjects), L1R4, EMB3 (English, math, and the best three subjects) or EMB1 for lower secondary levels in order to avoid any comparisons.
Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s minister of education, expects that the action will demonstrate to students that “learning is not a competition.”
