Jamus Lim questions SEAB’s findings after 432 students reported discrepancies
Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Jamus Lim has questioned the findings of an investigation into reports of discrepancies during the GCE O-level English oral examination in July.
In a Facebook post on Thursday (13 Aug), the Sengkang GRC MP said he had filed a parliamentary question about the issue, after at least 432 students reportedly said they were shown different questions during the examination.
Source: Jamus Lim on Facebook
The English oral examination took place on 15 July 2026.
Jamus Lim asks how SEAB reached its conclusion
Prof Lim’s original parliamentary question asked what records and evidence the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) examined during its investigation.
He also asked whether affected candidates and examiners were consulted, and what evidence supported the conclusion that no error had occurred.
Prof Lim said he subsequently asked a supplementary question about the Government’s conclusion.
He questioned whether the finding that there were no issues, despite reports from 432 students, effectively meant there had been a case of “collective hallucination”.
He also asked whether the investigation had placed greater weight on computer forensic evidence than the accounts given by students.
In Parliament, Senior Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary responded to his questions, calling Prof Lim’s assumptions “incorrect”.
He said that the students “demonstrated significant variance in the many phrases that they recalled”.
Source: Jamus Lim on Facebook
“We’re looking both at the testimony as well as the technical assessment,” he explained.
Dr Janil later asked Prof Lim to “not put words in my mouth of collective hallucinations, nor imply a privileging of one set of data over the other”.
Source: Jamus Lim on Facebook
MP says he remains unconvinced by official findings
Prof Lim said he remained unconvinced by the official conclusion.
“I find it implausible that there could have been some ex-post collusion by hundreds of people to report essentially the same problem,” he wrote.
He also questioned how nothing anomalous could have occurred during the examination when there had reportedly been no previous history of similar complaints.
Source: Jamus Lim on Facebook
Prof Lim further argued that differences between students’ accounts should not necessarily be used to dismiss their reports.
“I would also not use the varied distribution of responses as a reason to downplay the issue,” he wrote.
He said human recollections would naturally vary in detail, while still being able to accurately capture the “broad picture”.
Hundreds of students had reported discrepancies
The controversy centred on the planned response component of the O-level English oral examination.
According to Prof Lim’s parliamentary question, candidates were reportedly asked a planned response question that differed from the one displayed on their screens.
SEAB subsequently investigated the feedback and concluded that no error had occurred, according to the information referenced by Prof Lim.
However, the MP said the conclusion did not adequately address his concerns about the accounts provided by affected students.
He questioned whether the investigation had sufficiently considered the human testimony alongside the computer records.
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Featured image adapted from Jamus Lim on Facebook.
