PSLE scripts now marked on-screen

Teachers deployed for marking duties halved, and number of marking days cut from 4 to 3

- Elisha Tushara

Gone are the days when markers of the annual Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) would wield their pens over stacks of exam scripts.

Since the implementation of onscreen marking (OSM) - which involves marking examination scripts digitally on a computer screen for all PSLE subjects in 2022, the number of teachers deployed for marking duties has been halved from 14,000 to about 7,000 teachers, the authorities said.

In 2023, the number of PSLE marking days was also cut from four days to three days, the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) told The Straits Times.

Today, the PSLE and locally marked Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations are marked online. About 450,000 scripts are marked locally every year. SEAB introduced the OSM system in 2019.

In addition, all GCE examination scripts which are not assessed locally, are marked on-screen by markers appointed by Cambridge International Education in Britain.

Educators involved in the PSLE marking told ST that the new OSM system has greatly reduced the time taken to carry out certain marking processes.

Mr Seet Chia Song, 44, who has been marking PSLE scripts for the past 14 years, said that the duration for standardisation - a session that ensures there is a shared understanding of the marking criteria among markers - has been halved with the new system.

"Previously, all the markers had to be assembled in the hall. So the chief marker will brief everyone from the first to the last question. Everyone had to sit through the whole paper," said the lead teacher for Chinese language at Anderson Primary School.