PREMATURE SCHOOL LEAVERS

Mr Liew Kok Pun asked the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education what are the number and percentage of premature school-leavers for each level from Primary 1 to Secondary 4 in 1982, and whether streaming has reduced the number of premature school-leavers in that year.

Dr Tay Eng Soon (for the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, in 1982, the total number of pupils who left primary school pre-maturely was 2,755. This amounted to 0.94% of the total primary school enrolment which was 291,686. The majority of these pupils (about 66%) were from Primary 6, Primary 7 Extended Course and the Basic 4 Course.

For comparison, in 1978, the year before primary school streaming was introduced, the total number of premature primary school leavers was 8,900 or 3% of the total enrolment of 296,922. The introduction of streaming has, therefore, reduced the number of premature primary school leavers by more than three-fold.

In 1982, secondary streaming had reached only Secondary 2 level. The total number of premature school leavers from Secondary 1 and 2 were 1,605 or 1.9% of the total enrolment for the two levels. In contrast, for the same two levels in 1978, the total number of premature school leavers were 8,007 or 9.3% of the total enrolment. The reduction in dropout rate between the two years is nearly five-fold.

In absolute terms, the difference between 1978 and 1982 was a saving of over 12,500 pupils from becoming drop-outs.