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The DSA programme was introduced to recognise students’ talents and potential beyond exam results, and this remains valuable today, said Mr Neo.<\/p>\n
But for some families, it has become a second front in the “arms race”. Children may prepare for PSLE while building a DSA portfolio to secure a place in a preferred school.<\/p>\n
\u201cA genuine interest can then become an admissions strategy. Coaching starts earlier, competitions carry higher stakes, and some students eventually burn out and ask to leave the programme,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some parents also worry that families with more resources can afford specialised training<\/a> that others cannot.<\/p>\n MOE received suggestions to scale back or abolish DSA, while others argued it should be expanded so students can be assessed more holistically. Others proposed spreading places or talent areas more widely across schools, or recognising aptitude and interest rather than skills that can be intensively coached.<\/p>\n \u201cThe views differ, but they point to the same question. How can DSA recognise different strengths credibly without turning every interest into an admissions strategy?\u201d<\/p>\n Narrowing DSA too much may send the message that exam performance is the only achievement that counts, while broadening it may create more areas where families feel compelled to invest just to compete. Placing greater emphasis on aptitude could make assessment more subjective and seem unfair, Mr Neo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo the goal is not more or less DSA. But it is to reconnect talent recognition with genuine development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA child should be able to enjoy a sport without being asked whether it will produce medals or whether it will contribute to their DSA portfolio. A child should be able to learn music without every lesson building towards a certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n Parents still see some schools as good schools, and others as less so, said Mr Neo. MOE must assure them that strong teaching, rich development opportunities and credible routes to success exist across the system, not only in a few schools.<\/p>\n \u201cIf families trust that schools across the system can help their child thrive, then any single posting outcome will carry less weight,” he said.<\/p>\n \u201cParents will still have preferences, and schools will still differ in history, culture and programmes. But choosing one school over another need not feel like choosing a destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n MOE wants to build a system that gives parents confidence to place less emphasis on achievement and more on holistic development, knowing this will prepare their children for “long-term success”, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be clear: We are not against striving. Nor are we talking about dropping standards,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Children should learn to set goals, meet challenges and recover from setbacks, he said. “But healthy striving is different from endlessly chasing the last mark.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Chasing marginal gains from a young age can make every decision seem disproportionately consequential, leaving less room for a love of learning, said Mr Neo.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, our aim is not to remove all competition, stress or disappointment from education. That would not be realistic, nor would it prepare our children well for life,\u201d he said, noting that other countries that reduced or removed major exams found that the pressures re-emerge in other ways.<\/p>\n \u201cOur aim is to ensure that competition does not become the all-consuming thing that crowds out the pursuit of qualities that our children need to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n DSA: HOW IT BECAME A “SECOND FRONT” The DSA programme was introduced to recognise students’ talents and potential beyond exam results, and this remains valuable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}SCHOOL CHOICE NEED NOT FEEL LIKE DESTINY<\/h2>\n
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