Here's what I think of streaming.

Streaming is a necessary good. Because of streaming, students with a weaker foundation, and those who are late bloomers are given a chance to catch up. Self-esteem and confidence are not affected by streaming but by the attitudes of adults towards streaming. Streaming should be correctly understood. We can use swimming as an analogy. A swimming coach will never put all his students into the same class. He will put them according to their abilities and proficiency. This enables those who are slow to learn at their own pace and then eventually they will also be able to swim well. Streaming therefore allows students of all abilities to move ahead, the very good ones will not be held back, and the slow ones can catch up. So we should be dealing with people's attitudes towards streaming, and not take it out on streaming. People need to change their attitudes towards the purpose of streaming. My views stemmed from being in the education service once and I taught the weakest students during my time. They were so weak I could not make any assumption on their foundation and had to approach every topic on the assumption that they didn't know all the basics. I enjoyed teaching them. I often had to rack my brain to find different ways to explain the same concept to them in the same lesson in order to help them to understand. The greatest satisfaction for me was to see the frown on their faces giving way to the sparkle in their eyes that said, "Aha! I got it now!". Had they not been streamed, had they been put in classes of mixed abilities, they would not stand any chance. They would continue to lag further and further behind and then, they would lose all their self-esteem and lose confidence in themselves. So, please, deal with people's attitudes. Educate them on the purpose of streaming. It is better to inform parents how the education system actually works in Singapore. There are many pathways, both vertical and horizontal. You can move horizontally from one stream to another. Better still, nowadays, students can take subjects according to their abilities. There is greater flexibility and choice. Of course the system can always be improved. But there is no end of the road. Every road leads somewhere.