1962 GOVERNMENT PRIMARY SCHOOL LEAVING EXAMINATION (Statistics)

Dr Thio Chan Bee asked the Minister for Education (a) how many students at the end of 1962 took the Government Primary School Leaving Examination or its equivalent in (i) Government English Schools, (ii) Aided English schools, (iii) Government Chinese schools, (iv) Aided Chinese schools, (v) Government Malay schools, (vi) Aided Malay schools, (vii) Government Tamil schools and (viii) Aided Tamil schools; (b) how many of them passed and were promoted to Secondary One classes in the different language-media schools: (c) how many failed; and (d) what arrangements were made for the failures.

Mr Yong Nyuk Lin: The number of students who sat for the 1962 Government Primary School Leaving Examination was as follows:- Government English medium schools 21,045 Government-Aided English medium schools 5,071 Government Chinese medium Schools 709 Government-Aided Chinese medium schools 13,422 Government Malay medium Schools 2,567 Government-Aided Malay medium schools Nil Government Tamil medium Schools Nil Government-Aided Tamil medium schools 100 Grand Total 42,914

In answer to the second part of the question: 23,699 out of 42,914 or 55.2 per cent passed the 1962 Primary School Leaving Examination and all were eligible for promotion to Secondary I Classes this year in the following manner:- English medium 12,418 Chinese medium 9,646 Malay medium 1,572 Tamil medium 63

The number of pupils who failed the Primary School Leaving Examination was 19,215 or 44.8 per cent.

To the last part of the question: the following arrangements were made for failures:-

Firstly, those who were born in or after 1949, that is, under the age of fourteen this year are allowed to repeat Primary VI this year and to take the Primary School Leaving Examination at the end of this year. There are 11,862 pupils attending such Primary VI repeat classes.

Secondly, those who were born in 1948 and 1947, that is, over the age of fourteen this year are eligible for entry to post-Primary I classes. There are 3,490 pupils attending post-Primary I classes this year.

Lastly, those who were born in 1946 or earlier, that is, over -the age of seventeen this year have been superannuated. The number involved was 465.