ADD an 'i' to PSLE and what do you get?

A growing international brand, that's what.

And, yes, PSLE refers to our oft-maligned Primary School Leaving Examination.

While complaints about overly difficult or confusing questions are becoming an annual refrain at home, the PSLE is going places in the region.

It began with one school in Indonesia in 2005 and is now offered in more than 10 schools in seven nations.

A Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) spokesman said that from just 22 candidates in 2005, the number this year totalled 742.

The export version, iPSLE, stands for International Primary School Examination (SEAB says the L no longer stands for 'Leaving', but refers to the last letter of 'school').

GOING INTERNATIONAL

SEAB chief executive Tan Yap Kwang hopes the iPSLE will become an internationally recognised examination and people will one day talk about it in the same breath as the GCE O or A levels.

The iPSLE, which is set, marked and graded by SEAB, was introduced in Jakarta in August 2005.

It is now offered in 10 schools in Vietnam, Kuwait, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines. These include Singapore International Schools as well as other schools.

The iPSLE offers six subjects: English language, Mathematics, Science, Chinese language, Malay and Tamil languages.

Students can sit for a maximum of four subjects.

Mr Tan, 60, told Lianhe Zaobao: 'Since the SEAB was set up in 2004, we've actively exported Singapore's examination services.

'The number of (iPSLE) candidates has... increased by about 34 times. And we expect the numbers to grow.'

He said the O levels, A levels and International Baccalaureate are the current international benchmarks for secondary and post-secondary education examinations.

But there is no equivalent to primary education exams.

The iPSLE exam follows the format of the local PSLE, but the questions are different. Names and words with 'Singapore flavour' are avoided in iPSLE questions.

However, the SEAB spokesman told The New Paper that the iPSLE questions are 'of the same standard' as the PSLE ones. They are the same for all the foreign schools.

Mr Tan said private schools in neighbouring Asean countries use the iPSLE to assess student achievement because Singaporean students have fared well in international education studies.

Singapore was ranked first for maths and science in the 2005 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which surveyed 49 countries. It has consistently ranked well in the TIMSS.

Mr Tan noted that many countries had done away with standardised testing at primary level. This means they cannot evaluate if the teaching methods are appropriate or evaluate students' learning abilities.

Mr Tan said: 'Having exams just before entering university might be too late. The learning abilities of students have to be honed from young. Many countries have noticed this problem, that's why they are interested in iPSLE.'

The SEAB spokesman said: 'Students who take the iPSLE can use their results to apply for secondary schools in Singapore. This is one way of attracting students to Singapore.'

Schools that 'adopt other curricula' simply want to use the iPSLE to benchmark their academic standards against those of Singapore's.

He said some schools in China and Thailand have shown interest in offering the iPSLE.

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