Streaming - and the new Normal

QUICK: Which school did you come from? Were you in the Normal or Express stream? Poly or JC? How many points did you score for O levels? Arts or Science? Local uni or foreign? US, UK or... Australian? Honours, first class or second? At least, say second uppers. No? Well, maybe we shouldn't be friends.

By the time a Singaporean child turns 10, she would have some inkling of where she stands in the hierarchy of academic achievement. The good pupils are by then herded into one class, the weaker students into another. If the child finds her nascent sense of self-pride shattered, well, tough. It's just the start of what might be a lifelong battle to regain her morale and confidence.

Normal, Faith Ng's new play on the education system, tackles many of these issues head-on. Its title turns on the paradoxical idea of "normal" being simply ordinary and at the same time academically "unexceptional" - as the "Normal" label used for less bright students suggests.