National Examination Scripts
NAME AND CONSTITUENCY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Mr Zainal Sapari, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC
QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education whether
the Ministry will consider having all GCE examination papers to be prepared
and marked locally to minimise the risk associated with having the papers
shipped and marked overseas.
NAME AND CONSTITUENCY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar, Ang Mo Kio GRC
QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education what are the Ministry's plans in ensuring
the safety and integrity of our GCE examination scripts that are sent to
the United Kingdom or other overseas marking centres.
NAME AND CONSTITUENCY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Prof Lim Sun Sun, Nominated Member of Parliament
QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education whether the Ministry has considered
having the GCE "O" and "A" Level exams be e-exams where students key in
answers via the computer, or to have written answer scripts be scanned
and graded electronically so as to avoid situations of loss or tampering.
NAME AND CONSTITUENCY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament
QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the timeline for the Ministry's
plans to introduce electronic marking of GCE "O" and "A" Level examination
scripts and whether the plans will be brought forward; (b) what action
is the Ministry taking to prevent a recurrence of stolen or lost scripts
including any mitigation action to be taken now pending any change of marking
methods in future.
NAME AND CONSTITUENCY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Miss Cheng Li Hui, Tampines GRC
QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education with regard to GCE "N", "O" and "A"
Levels examinations (a) whether examination scripts of all subjects will
be scanned, digitalised and marked onscreen by the end of 2019 or will
some subjects be exempted; (b) whether any overseas examination boards
have conducted e-exams for examinations of similar level; (c) whether the
Ministry has conducted trials or is conducting trials for holding e-exams
for some subjects; and (d) whether schools and students are currently equipped
to conduct and complete examinations digitally.
RESPONSE
1. Mr Speaker, I will address the five questions raised by Members on
the issue of examination scripts lost in the United Kingdom (UK) while
being marked. Mr Murali Pillai had also filed a similar question on this
issue at the next sitting, and I will address his question too.
Value in Engaging Cambridge Assessment
2. MOE and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) decide
on the standards and the award of grades for our national examinations.
At the same time, we engage Cambridge Assessment to develop and mark our
GCE N/O/A-Level examinations because of their strong global expertise and
experience in this areas.
3. This arrangement has worked well for many years. Each year, there are
about 1.1 million answer scripts generated in the GCE-level examinations.
300,000 answer scripts, are marked locally, while 800,000 answer scripts
are marked by Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment in turn taps on
about 2,200 professors and experienced educators from universities and
higher institutions to mark the scripts.
4. Therefore, to mark all the scripts locally requires a very substantial
amount of highly qualified resources. As these are required during the
school vacation period, we need to be mindful about the workload and wellbeing
of our teachers if all subjects are to be marked locally, and the tight
timeline between the examinations and the release of results.
5. Over the years, Cambridge Assessment has also taken their role very
professionally and seriously. For example, following the recent O-Level
Additional Mathematics incident, Cambridge Assessment has committed to
reinforce the instructions given to their examiners on the handling and
movement of scripts. The Examiner concerned will also not be engaged to
mark scripts in future. This collaboration between MOE and Cambridge Assessment
continues to be useful and necessary.
On-screen Marking
6. The next question is whether we can improve the situation by marking
the scripts electronically, to ensure the safety and integrity of the scripts
and prevent future losses.
7. In fact, since 2015 and before the recent incidents, SEAB and Cambridge
Assessment have been working closely on a planned move to transit the distribution
and marking of hardcopy GCE-Level answer scripts to on-screen marking in
the UK since 2015.
8. There are many professional advantages: tabulation of scores become
much faster and efficient; there is no need to handle voluminous physical
scripts; we can readily generate data to study how students perform in
various papers, sections, or questions, which will help us improve instruction
and teaching.
9. Given the large number of answer scripts, the implementation of on-screen
marking in the UK was carried out in phases. In 2017, we implemented for
GCE N-level examinations. By 2018, this was extended to some GCE O-level
examinations, and close to 65% of all GCE-Level written scripts were marked
on-screen. By the end of this year, we are on track to mark on-screen almost
all of GCE-Level written scripts. From 2020, locally developed examination
papers, namely GCE N(T)-Level Basic Mother Tongue Language and O-level
Literature in Mother Tongue Language, will be marked on-screen and then
more local papers will be included over the subsequent few years.
10. There are some examination papers that are not suitable for on-screen
marking. For example, Science Practical examination scripts cannot be marked
on-screen as these answer scripts may be contaminated with chemicals which
makes them unsuitable for scanning. Other examinations like drama or art
are obviously also not suitable for on-screen marking.
e-Examinations
11. Members have also asked if we could go beyond on-screen marking to
conduct e-Examinations.
12. There are a few examination boards that have implemented e-Examinations,
for example, the SAT test by US College Board for college admission. The
approach in Singapore is to use e-Examinations when there is clear benefit
over paper-based tests.
13. For example, SEAB has already implemented e-oral exams across all
levels for Mother Tongue Language subjects. We use video clips to set the
context, which enables a richer and more meaningful interaction compared
to just showing a picture, which was what we went through. This will be
extended to the GCE N-level English in 2019 and O-level English in 2020.
14. We have introduced computer-based writing examination as a pilot,
in the GCE O- and A-Level Mother Tongue Language Syllabus Bā€™s Paper 1 and
GCE A-Level H2 Mother Tongue Language and Literature. So far the feedback
has been positive as the candidates found the e-Examination more engaging
and authentic.
15. It is possible that in time to come, more written examinations can
be administered on screen as well. Students can more readily copy and paste
text in their essays, move paragraphs around, and they can be asked to
respond to an email, or write a blog or social media post. All these better
reflect real life situations that students go through later in life.
16. But we are still some time away from that future. We need to take
into account the readiness of schools and students. More importantly and
notwithstanding the high computer penetration rate amongst our population,
we should not inadvertently disadvantage students who may not be exposed
to computers as much as others. Ideally, e-Examinations need to be aligned
to schoolsā€™ use of technology in teaching and learning.
Conclusion
17. Even as MOE, SEAB, and Cambridge Assessment work towards on-screen
marking and e-Examinations, let me emphasise that every system has risks.
Going electronic will eliminate the risk of lost scripts, but new risks
associated with electronic data will surface. So whatever system we adopt
in future, we need to study the pros and cons carefully, proceed methodologically,
we need to identify and ensure that risks are managed and mistakes minimized
to the greatest extent possible.