THE strong showing of home-schooled children during this year's Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) has encouraged parents of home- taught pupils who will sit for the test down the road.
Many are planning to take unprecedented steps to prepare their children for the PSLE, including running mock exams in rented church halls.
Mrs Angie Maniam-Ng, who home- schools three children between the ages of four and eight, said: 'We are very happy with the good results. They show that the home-schooling system works.
'Some of us are encouraged to take steps to better prepare our children for the exam. Hopefully, in the future, we can produce a top pupil too.'
There are 280 primary-school-aged children who are home-schooled here.
This year, 26 of them sat for the PSLE, and 24 did well enough to make it to secondary schools.
It was the first time they have been required to sit for the exam, which became mandatory under a 2003 law designed to ensure children have a minimum level of education.
The results are especially significant to parents as it is the first time they have a gauge of how home-schooled children measure up against their peers from mainstream schools.
Some families are planning to band together to rent halls in churches and condominiums next year to simulate test conditions and give their children what one parent called 'exam smarts'.
They will also send their children for standardised tests, like the one run by Australia's University of New South Wales, which gauges their proficiency in English, mathematics, science, computer skills, writing and spelling.
Parents who do not have a strong command of Chinese are also hiring tutors to help their children brush up on their conversation skills, which are tested in PSLE oral exams.
Parents maintain that their efforts do not contradict the philosophy of home- schooling, which hinges on self- directed learning.
'The PSLE is not the only goal that we have,' said Ms Kay Tan, 41, who home- schools her eight- year-old son.
'We also gauge our children on other things like character development (and) whether they are self- learners. We will take a meandering route and stop along the way to explore their interests. But we will also ensure that they are prepared for the PSLE.'
Mr Martin Rushton, 46, who home- schools his nine-year-old daughter, feels these children do not need special preparation.
'The one-to-one teaching allows parents to understand their children's learning abilities very well, and they can cater their teaching methods to fit their needs.
'This helps the children to be well- prepared for the exam. With the first batch doing well, it gives confidence to parents like myself that we can expect future batches to do well too.'
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