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SINGAPORE: The Education Ministry on Wednesday announced moves to give students in the Normal stream more choices and scopes to excel.
By 2013, about 1 in 3 students in the Normal Academic stream will be able to take up a diploma course at a polytechnic, without having to sit for the O-level examinations.
The top 10 percent of the Normal Academic cohort is expected to take this route.
As for the next 20 percent, they can take up a two-year Higher NITEC course with the Institute of Technical Education, before entering polytechnic in the first or second year.
This option is an enhancement of a current scheme called the ITE Direct Entry Scheme, where students who perform well at the N-levels may enrol into ITE in January the following year.
They will then take a 10-week preparatory course, before joining the O-level intake in the Higher NITEC courses in April. Students may then go on to a polytechnic, subject to their grades and the polytechnic's assessment.
The difference now, is that so long as students meet the grades, they will be given a place.
The Education Ministry said the first batch of 377 Direct Entry Scheme students in 2008 performed on par with their classmates who took the O-level route.
About half of the DES students move on to polytechnic. It added that when the new ITE College Central opens in 2013, it will expand the places available to 1,000.
Currently, about 40 percent of Normal Academic students continue their studies at the five polytechnics, a proportion that has stayed constant over the last five years.
Polytechnics will offer about 1,000 places at the foundation programme for selected courses and students will be prepped in literacy, maths and science.
Mr Tan Hang Cheong, Principal of Singapore Polytechnic, said: "We'll also introduce them to a lot of project work, team work, and they have a lot of opportunities for industry visits, to create that interest in the courses that they've selected.
"I think this will greatly help them if they go on to the three-year diploma course."
But some students feel that they'll be better prepared if they stick to the O-levels.
Secondary 5 student Lim Fang Wei is aiming for a diploma in Applied Sciences or Engineering.
"Maths at N-levels is very basic. But at O-levels, the topics are harder and more complicated. So by doing that and understanding more, I can learn more than just doing the N-levels and doing the one year foundation course together," he said.
He continued, "If I have a diploma and an O-level cert, I can find a better job. It's better than having an N-level cert. So taking the O-levels isn't a bad thing. I'm sure if I work hard enough, I'll be able to cope at poly."
Normal Technical students will also have more options.
Normal Technical students form about 13 percent of the cohort, and the ministry expects that the bulk of Normal Technical students will still go to mainstream schools.
From 2013, two secondary schools will be set up specifically to cater to this group.
The Institute of Technical Education and companies will be brought in as partners and educators say this specialised approach will give the schools more flexibility and space to develop programmes to suit the students' needs.
A pilot programme offering ITE courses in Bedok Town Secondary, Si Ling Secondary and Shuqun Secondary, may be expanded in the future. - CNA/fa
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