Education in Singapore: Encyclopedia II - Education in Singapore - Primary education

Education in Singapore - Primary education

Primary education consists of a four-year foundation stage from Primary 1 to 4 and a two-year orientation stage from Primary 5 to 6. Primary education is free, though there is a miscellaneous fee of up to S$13 monthly that goes to the respective school, to help cover the cost of equipment and special programmes for the benefit of the pupils.

Education in Singapore - Foundation stage

The foundation stage is the first stage of formal schooling. The four years, from primary 1 to 4, will provide a firm foundation in the English language, the mother tongue (Chinese, Malay or Tamil) and mathematics. Other subjects, such as civics and moral education, arts and crafts, music, health education, social studies and physical education lessons which will be taught throughout primary 1 to 6. Science is taught from primary 3 to 6.

Education in Singapore - Orientation stage

At the end of primary 4, students will be classified into EM1 or EM3 (the EM1 and EM2 streams have been merged in 2004) language streams for their two-year orientation stage, primary 5 and 6, the rationale being to cater to children of different academic capabilities (though it often results in the ostracising of those in "lower" streams.) The curriculum in each stream (the difference being difficulty of the languages; English and mother tongue) will gear a student towards secondary education in the course most suited for him. At the end of primary 6, the national PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) will be held.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Primary education", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki