BACKGROUND

   Currently, MOE provides information to the public on school performance in the following ways:

a.        School ranking lists. Secondary school rankings, in terms of absolute academic performance (top 50 schools), academic value-added (top 20 schools) and physical fitness (top 50 schools), are released to the public every year. All JCs are also ranked.

b.        Achievements under the Masterplan of Awards. The Masterplan of Awards recognises schools for their academic and non-academic achievements, as well as the processes they have put in place to achieve those outcomes. The Awards cover achievements in Academic Value-added, the Arts, Sports, Uniformed Groups, Physical Fitness, National Education and Best Practices.

         Both sets of information are released together in Sep / Oct each year.

   As a tool of school accountability, the academic rank lists have allowed parents and students to make more informed choices when selecting schools, and schools to benchmark their performance vis-à-vis other schools.

   Nevertheless, the ranking system in its present form may have led to an over-emphasis on examination performance, at the expense of a more holistic and rounded education. It may also be entrenching conventional approaches to education, and inhibiting schools from exploring approaches which may help develop their students' abilities, e.g. in innovation and creative thinking, but have no assurance of producing superior examination results.

   For this review of the school ranking system, MOE consulted extensively with a cross-section of stakeholders in education, including school leaders and teachers, parents, students and employers. Feedback was sought through focus group discussions, surveys, and feedback channels on MOE's internet and intranet websites.

   A total of over 1,400 stakeholders were involved in the entire consultation process. There was strong support from all stakeholders consulted for broadening and loosening the current school ranking system, to provide a more comprehensive representation of school achievement and broaden the definition of success for schools. Over 90% of parents surveyed favoured this.

KEY CHANGES

   The Ministry has decided to make the following refinements to the school ranking system:

   First, to change from individual ranking to banding. Current rank positions for secondary schools are determined by their 'O' level results to one decimal point¹, which does not constitute a meaningful difference in performance. Henceforth, secondary schools will be grouped in bands of one integer each based on the 'O' level aggregate scores of their students. This will translate into about 12 bands for schools offering the Special/Express course, and about 7 bands for schools offering the Normal course.

   Second, to recognise schools in a more holistic way by expanding the number of domains under which school achievements are highlighted. The current ranking lists will be replaced by School Achievement Tables, which provide a broader picture of schools' performance in various academic and non-academic domains in a simple, digestible form. A mock-up of the table is given at Annex A.

   The School Achievement Tables will highlight schools' achievements in the following domains, which are aligned to our desired outcomes of education:

a.      Academic Value-Added

b.      Character Development

c.      Physical and Aesthetics

   MOE's Masterplan of Awards (MoA) will be the key instrument for recognising schools' achievements. The existing MoA will be expanded and refined to cover domains (a) to (c) above. The expanded MoA is set out schematically in Annex B. The new and revised awards under the expanded MoA will be progressively introduced from 2004. Honour Rolls of schools that have performed exceedingly well in each of the MoA domains will also be released (see Annex C).

   Third, to provide parents and students with practical and readily accessible information on schools and their achievements. A web-based interactive system will be developed to allow parents and students to generate comparative lists of schools based on specified parameters - e.g. schools in a certain geographic vicinity, within a certain academic band or strong in the arts and sports. (See Annex D for mock-up.) MOE will also provide detailed individual profiles ("School Pics"² - see Annex E for mock-up) for each school.

  The proposed changes to the public presentation of school achievements are targeted for implementation from Sep 2004. Most of the new or revised awards will be introduced progressively from 2005.

CONCLUSION

   The Ministry is concurrently introducing greater flexibility in the school admissions system. Together with the more broad-based school ranking system, these improvements will serve to align the focus of parents, students, schools, and the community on the importance of a well-rounded education.

¹At JC level, mean 'A' level points are rounded to the nearest integer for ranking purposes.
²These "School Pics" will also be available in hardcopy.

Annex A, B, C, D, E