Login
|
In The News
|
PSLE Exam questions set under a cloak of secrecy
Author: Nur Dianah Suhaimi
Source: The Sunday Times
Date: 21 Oct 2007
The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB), a government statutory board, operates under a cloak of secrecy to ensure that questions are not leaked.
Even principals would not know if their teachers had been approached by the board to set PSLE exam questions.
"All exams must be set in a confidential manner, no matter if it's in Singapore or elsewhere," said SEAB chief executive Tan Yap Kwang, who declined to reveal how many teacher setters there are, but said the numbers are few.
He said "setters have to bear in mind that questions cannot be vague, the language used has to be easy to understand and the concept that is being tested has to be clear".
Setters are not told when their questions are used or if they will be used at all as some questions are kept for future papers.
Questions set must clear two hurdles. First is scrutiny by curriculum and assessment specialists from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the SEAB, who will accept, modify or reject them. Then a separate panel of curriculum and assessment officers will assemble the final exam paper.
Panel members and clerical staff must declare if they have children or relatives sitting the exam that year. If they do, they will move to a different part of the building so they have no contact with the exam papers. Panel members will be taken off the panel for that year.
For further security, the rooms containing the papers at the SEAB headquarters in Jalan Bukit Ho Swee can be assessed by only a select few.
[Back]
|
|
|
