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SINGAPORE : From next year, primary school leavers who do not do well enough to enter a secondary school have a new option.
Besides Northlight School, they can choose hands-on learning at Assumption Pathway School.
The school is currently known as Assumption Vocational Institute, or AVI, and will be renamed Assumption Pathway School from next year.
And with a new name comes a new focus.
15-year-old Joey Guan is a student at AVI. The first-year student was at the Normal Academic stream at Yuan Ching Secondary, but chose to enter AVI after she failed her Secondary Two exams. And now, Joey is hoping to make it to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).
AVI has been helping primary and secondary school-leavers like Joey since 1994 and now the school will be doing much more.
It will also expand its intake to include those who have failed their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) once. They will undergo a three- or four-year programme.
And for the first time, students will get to board on campus. Up to 60 students each time will stay on the Boys' Town premises, but by 2011, boarders will have their own facilities.
Students will go on two week-long programmes each year, one in each semester, starting with the first new intake in 2009.
But current Year One students like Joey will also get a taste of living on campus.
Joey said: "In Secondary School, we rarely have that kind of programme, and not every school have it. Well, this school has it, so very lucky for us. I'm quite looking forward to it also."
The Education Ministry will pump in S$28 million to refurbish the existing site along Upper Bukit Timah Road, and construct new residences.
By 2011, the new school may hold up to 700 students. Next year, the school expects to see about 300 students in total, including its current intake.
Currently, students get to do their industrial attachment in their final year, but from 2009, they will be able to get a taste of working life from as early as Year One.
For the first time, the vocational training programme will also be extended to students doing other courses as well.
The changes were announced by Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who said the success of Northlight School showed that through hands-on learning, students can achieve better results.
That same approach will be adopted in the new school to give students a stronger grounding in core academic subjects.
Mr Tharman said: "Firstly, these are kids who want to go on to post-secondary education, and we've got to prepare them as well as possible. Secondly, we're... teaching English and Maths, these core subjects, in a different way, in a different setting.
"By allowing these kids to learn, even English and Maths, through practical experience, they're developing confidence that they didn't earlier show, and they're performing better."
Principal of AVI, Mr Christopher Neo, said most AVI students come in with a poor grasp of basic literacy skills.
"So when they go to service courses such as food preparation and services, it's hard for them to relate to the customers. With the solid foundation, we're going to have in our new programme, this will help them, and also enhance their ability to interact with customers."
The new Assumption Pathway School will be headed by Mr Wee Tat Chuen, who is currently the Vice-Principal of Northlight School.
Mr Neo will stay on to oversee the new school's vocational training programmes.
Mr Tharman added that the aim is to bring the Assumption Pathway School into the mainstream of education, and in so doing, nurture students who are more confident in taking on their future. - CNA/ch
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