I refer to the letter “Standardise teaching sequence for science topics in primary schools” (Aug 30) by Ephrem Chong Ming Ee. 

I am a lead educational therapist at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) and I also spearhead science programmes for our specialised educational services division.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about many challenges, and I would like to commend the efforts by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to implement home-based learning for our students.

This ensured continuous learning despite the safe distancing measures imposed during the circuit breaker.

In addition, the removal of the last topics from all content-based syllabuses in the national examinations this year has allowed students to focus more on relevant topics that will be examinable.

However, as Mr Chong has pointed out, it has posed distinctive challenges for students taking the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) science paper.

As the science topics are not taught in a standardised and sequential manner in different primary schools, some students had to race against time to learn the remaining science topics for their upcoming PSLE.

This proved to be an especially immense struggle for our students with dyslexia and other special educational needs who work better in a structured routine and usually require more time to internalise and remember the learned topics.

Over the years, it is heartening that MOE has made a significant shift in the science syllabus to place greater emphasis on nurturing students as inquirers and to encourage teachers to use hands-on teaching methods and open-ended investigations.

This is similar to the Orton-Gillingham approach as well as the Inquiry-Based Learning approach used by DAS to engage students with dyslexia in multi-sensory intervention strategies.

Standardising the teaching sequence of the science themes in all schools would certainly help students with dyslexia and special educational needs to receive science literacy support at the DAS that is concurrent with the science topics that are being taught in school.

This will enable us to outline better planning of our curriculum to support our students in the mainstream schools to pave the way for good progress with their science literacy.

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