HDB Kids Don’t Perform as well in PSLE

[Salary.sg]

Don’t let mainstream media headlines like “Most top PSLE students stay in HDB flats” (link) mislead you into thinking that HDB kids are top students.

All it takes is a sharp eye and a thinking mind to see the facts. Straits Times reader Mr Visakan Veerasamy wrote to the papers today:

“The statistics given in the (newspaper article) are as follows: About 82% of Singaporeans live in public housing. More than 60% of the top 10% of PSLE scorers live in HDB flats. More than 50% of Sec 1 students enrolled in Integrated Programme (IP) schools live in HDB flats. But the same statistics also mean that while only 18% of Singaporeans live in private housing, they account for almost 40% of the top PSLE scorers and more than 40% of IP school enrolment.”

There you go. The official statistics tell us that HDB kids on the whole don’t perform as well as their counterparts in condos and landed houses. Period.

This is also in line with our past observations that rich kids do better and doctors come from rich background.

And our reporters choose to use positive-sounding headlines like “Most top PSLE students stay in HDB flats”.

Do you know why our reporters are so keen on such creative reporting? It’s not the first time - see another good example here.

http://www.salary.sg/2009/hdb-kids-d...-well-in-psle/