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SINGAPORE: Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) announced on Monday that O-level examinations would start a week earlier from 2007.
The Board said bringing the exams forward would allow results to be released earlier, enabling students to be admitted into junior colleges or the centralised institution at the same time in late January, instead of the current double-intake.
But this single-intake change kicks in only in 2009.
Starting school in a new junior college or centralised institution is tougher for those who enter the new environment only in March, after they get their O-level exam results.
Pravind Paul, a J1 student, Catholic Junior College, said: "I'm a second-intake student and because of that I feel a bit like a second-class citizen at times, in the sense that most of my peers are slightly ahead of me in certain subjects. I'm quite behind and I'm struggling."
Tan Eng Hong, Director of Operations, SEAB, said: "In general, principals are supportive of this measure. Shifting forward the exams by one week is not a very long time. Principals have assured us that they are able to adjust and complete the curriculum on time so that students will be well-prepared for the examination."
Although some parents are worried about the new timeline, students seem to take it in their stride.
A Secondary 4 student said: "I think one week won't make much of a difference if you're ready. If you're not ready, there's only so much you can do in a week. And it's probably good because it gives us more time to do stuff in the holidays."
SEAB said besides facilitating single-intake admissions, having the O-level exams earlier would also space out the number of papers a student has to take.
Mr Tan said: "Taking into consideration that there are about 120 O-level papers that we need to schedule in three weeks, it is not possible to ensure that none of the students has to take three papers in a day. What we're trying to do here is to make sure that the students are not worse off than previous years."
SEAB also said it would leave it to schools to decide if they still want to have preliminary examinations since the results would no longer be used for admission into junior colleges.
This is because preliminary examinations are often used as a tool for schools to assess their students' ability ahead of the O-levels.
- CNA/so
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