By Amelia Tan & Leow Si Wan

NEIGHBOURHOOD schools have trumped their more well-regarded counterparts in producing top pupils in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

Seven of the 13 best pupils this year came from schools in the heartland: Qifa in West Coast, South View in Choa Chu Kang, Greenridge in Bukit Panjang, Rulang in Jurong West and Gongshang in Tampines.

Last year, only two neighbourhood schools produced top scorers.

Qifa Primary also had the best overall pupil: Qiu Biqing, 13, the daughter of Chinese nationals who are now permanent residents, scored 290 points.

Hot on her heels were pupils like Gongshang's Joyce Sin, 12, who scored 287, and South View's John Zhang and Michelle Lim, both 12, with 286.

Overall, the results for this year's PSLE cohort were similar to that for last year's batch. Of the 48,541 Primary 6 pupils who took the exam this year, 97.1 per cent did well enough to progress to secondary school. In total, 63.1 per cent made it to the Express stream, while 22.4 per cent and 11.6 per cent made it to the Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) avenues, respectively.

The strong showing of the neighbourhood schools took the shine off some better-known ones like Henry Park and Tao Nan, whose pupils usually make the top scorers list but did not do so this time.

The results will provide a fillip to those who have argued long and hard that neighbourhood schools are capable of turning out top-drawer pupils.

The neighbourhood versus brand-name school debate is a perennial one. To many parents, the latter group of schools, with their long histories and illustrious alumni, represent the pinnacle of education standards here.

As a result, many will do almost anything to get their children into such schools, including putting in long hours as volunteers and even moving to addresses nearby. But each year, many are disappointed, and tales of anguish at balloting exercises are commonplace.

To educators and others in the know, however, neighbourhood schools are just as good. Just last week, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew said education standards are high across the board in Singapore, noting that the bulk of top pupils each year do not come from so-called 'elite' schools.

Principals contacted said many neighbourhood schools have put in place innovative teaching methods and have developed a core of dedicated teachers who can bring out the best in their charges.

South View Primary's principal Jenny Yeo said: 'We have put certain processes in place to stretch our pupils' potential and to provide a holistic environment for them.' For example, pupils at the school have to learn different types of dance, baking and cooking and take part in inter-disciplinary project work.

South View was one of the better performing schools this year - its overall pass rate this year was 99.1 per cent, higher than the national average.

Said Mrs Yeo: 'Neighbourhood primary schools can offer as much as brand-name ones. We have very dedicated teachers who are willing to commit time to guiding pupils, many of whom do not even have tuition.'

Primary schools saw their first batch of pupils in the subject-based banding system graduate this year. The system replaces the previous system which put the weakest pupils in the EM3 stream, where they took most subjects at basic, or Foundation, level.

The new system allows weak pupils to take a mix of subjects at either Standard or Foundation level, depending on their abilities. This means they can pursue subjects which they are stronger in at Standard level while learning at their own pace for other subjects.

These pupils have done 'generally well' in the PSLE, said the Education Ministry. Pupils outside the mainstream schools did not do as well as their counterparts elsewhere, however. Of the 363 madrasah pupils who sat for the PSLE this year, 337, or 93 per cent, made it to secondary school, compared with 98 per cent last year. Home-schoolers also fared worse. This year, 20 of 37 pupils made it to secondary school - a rate of 54 per cent, compared with 92 per cent last year.

The only exception was San Yu Adventist School, which maintained its 100 per cent record. Both of its pupils who took the exam passed.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.