The Effects of Streaming on the Self-Concept and Attitude of Primary School Pupils in Singapore

Introduction

When the New Education System — Primary (NES-P) was introduced into schools in 1980, pupils were streamed into three courses (Normal, Extended, Monolingual) according to the results of their Primary Three (P3) examinations. Streaming pupils to the three courses depends on their performance in P3 and P2. To be streamed into the monolingual or M-course, a pupil has to fail in P2 and P3. The end-of-year P3 examinations are school-based, but the items for the examinations are drawn from the item bank of the Ministry of Education (MOE). A safeguard against wrong streaming is the Ministry's achievement test, which is given to pupils identified for streaming to the monolingual course by their schools. So, M-course pupils would have failed repeatedly during their first three years of school.