Class sizes are not necessarily the most important determiner of educational outcomes, he said.
SINGAPORE – The new approach to gifted education will not result in changes to typical class sizes of 30 to 40 pupils in primary schools here, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on Sept 10.
He was referring to a state where education is customised en masse to each student’s needs, breaking out of the traditional problem of public education, where only two out of three goals can be achieved: quality at scale, speed of innovation and affordability.pupils will no longer be selected through a single, two-stage test in Primary 3, and will not transfer out of their original schools to the nine centres if chosen.
In response, Mr Chan said how big a class is depends on a student’s needs, and schools now have a range of class sizes. In response to Mr Chan, Associate Professor Jamus Lim said that while significant resources have been dedicated to students at both ends of the spectrum of ability, having large class sizes for those in the middle may imply that there is not enough diversity within this group to warrant smaller classes.
He added that no matter how many teachers there are, MOE would not apply teaching resources evenly to all classes because the required class size depends on students’ needs.Ms Denise Phua asked why the GEP had not been redesigned into a system where pupils can elect their choices of subject levels based on their ability, gift and interest.
In response, Mr Chan said it will not be possible to run some of these classes just on the basis of interest without an assessment of ability.
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