Jonathan Lo was so keen to know his Primary School Leaving Examination score that he ripped open a letter containing his result slip the moment he got it.
But the 12-year-old's excitement was short-lived. The letter, which came on Nov 25, said he had to resit the exam next year, even though his score of 173 out of 300 qualified him for the Normal (Academic) stream in secondary school.
Jonathan is a home-schooler. This is the first year pupils like him have to take the PSLE under the 2003 Compulsory Education Act. They have to meet a benchmark of the 33rd percentile aggregate score of mainstream pupils, which is a score of 191.
Of this year's 26 home-schooled candidates, seven scored lower than 191 and have to retake the exam. Among the seven, five have scores that qualify them for secondary school.
This prompted two parents to write to The Straits Times forum page last week.
Briton Martin Rushton, a private tutor whose nine-year-old daughter, a Singaporean, will be sitting for her PSLE in three years, felt it was 'inequitable' for one group of citizens to be set a higher benchmark.
Mr George Rocknathan's son scored 242 and is this year's top home-schooled pupil. But Mr Rocknathan, 45, found out that his child is not eligible for the Secondary 1 posting exercise as he was home-schooled.
Mainstream pupils had to submit their choices of six secondary schools by Nov 26. Home- schoolers have to submit three choices by Dec 12 and the Ministry of Education (MOE) will facilitate the application to a 'school with vacancy'.
Mr Rocknathan, who hopes to enrol his son in Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) or St Joseph's Institution, is appealing to the schools directly to secure a place and is considering international schools.
The MOE replied in The Straits Times forum page that home- schoolers are exempted from national schools on the basis that they are adequately prepared in terms of acquiring core knowledge for further education and work.
The PSLE benchmarks were set after public consultation and have been communicated to the home- schoolers since 2003, it added.
But this has done little to reduce the anxiety among parents of home- schoolers, who said they were told only of the benchmark, but not what would happen if their children did not meet it.
Nor were they told that their children were excluded from the secondary school admission process.
Previously, parents who wanted their children to rejoin schools at the secondary level had to appeal directly to their schools of choice.
Mr Andrew Bennett, principal of SJI (International), said he has seen five applications in the past two years. Not all were admitted. He did not reveal how applications were judged but said one home-schooler he admitted has been 'outstanding'.
Mr Nicholas Moey, spokesman for Raffles Girls' Secondary, which has not admitted home- schooled pupils, said admission is 'based on meritocracy'.
Many parents, however, choose to home-school their children into the secondary school years. Their children enrol in long-distance learning diploma courses from American colleges or take the O levels as private candidates.
'We were planning to start preparing him for the SATs and O levels, but now we have to spend time reviewing what we did last year, and learning the new maths syllabus for next year,' said a parent who gave her name only as Madam Chong, 40.
Her son is among the five who have to resit the exam even though his score qualifies him for secondary school.
Mr Rushton hopes the ministry will consider the plight of home- schooled kids with special needs and who may be content with simply qualifying for the Normal stream.
He said: 'Their parents have made sacrifices like quitting jobs to give them specialised teaching. Telling these children they have failed based on a higher benchmark simply because they were home- schooled may be a blow to their self-esteem.'
Jonathan's mother, Mrs Clare Lo, 44, a former financial planner who is now a housewife, concurred: 'When he sees his peers from mainstream schools who got the same score moving on to secondary school, he may start to question the disparity.'
Jonathan was diagnosed with dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a binocular visual disorder when he was eight years old.
She is appealing to the MOE for an exemption from next year's exam.
Mrs Angie Maniam-Ng, 38, a housewife who home-schools three children between the ages of four and eight, said a group of eight to 10 parents is thinking of forming a committee to act as a collective voice for the community.
Self-employed David Tay, 35, who has three homeschooled children, said: 'We will be happy to work with the MOE and school principals to familiarise them with the concept of home-schooling and the benefits of having a home-schooled child among their students.'
Should home-schooled pupils retake their PSLE if they qualify for secondary school? Click here to take our poll.
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