28 Mar 06

Posting Process is Based on Merit

1. Mdm Chia Chye Hiang ("11-pointer loses out to 13-pointers in choice of JC", Straits Times Forum, 16 March) and Mrs Lee Kienwah ("Provide more info on JC admission exercise", Straits Times Forum, 20 March) had queried about the Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) posting process, through which students are posted to junior colleges, the Millennia Institute, polytechnics or the Institute of Technical Education.
2. 1 Students participating in the JAE are ranked by merit according to their net aggregate scores. The student with a better net aggregate score gets priority over another in his choice of institution.
3. Specifically, based on his examination performance for 1st language and 5 relevant subjects, a student is given an L1R5 score. In addition, a student may get bonus points for various other factors such as CCA achievements and whether he is already studying at the same JC following the provisional admission exercise. The bonus points are deducted from the L1R5 score to form the net aggregate score.
4. Mdm Chia referred to the situation where her daughter obtained a net aggregate score of 9 points (11 points minus 2 bonus points), similar to the net aggregate scores of her 2 classmates. In situations where there are not enough vacancies in the institution for students with identical net aggregate scores, further criteria have to be used to rank them. The criteria look holistically at each student's achievements, including his academic and CCA achievements, and take further account of whether a student is choosing to stay in the JC that he had been provisionally admitted to earlier. However, we recognise that there is no method of ranking in these tie-breaker situations that will be fully satisfactory to all the students involved.
5. Mrs Lee had also asked how students with aggregate scores of 20 could be admitted before her son. It is possible that these students had been admitted to the JCs under the flexibility which JCs have to assess and recognise students with special talents and achievements. The discretion that JCs have in this regard, for up to 10% of their places (and 20% for independent JCs), is contained in an information note that is provided to candidates each year.
6. To enable us to get more specific information, we invite Mrs Lee to contact us at 6872 2220 or email us at contact@moe.edu.sg so that we can look into the case and clarify matters with her.
7. The JAE remains the central mechanism for allocating places in our post-secondary educational institutions. We have also given our institutions a certain measure of flexibility in admissions, so that they can recognise a broader range of talents in education and benefit from a diversity of students. This is in line with admission practices of top schools and colleges in many other countries, and reflects the goals of an all-round, broad-based education.

Lim Huay Chih (Ms)
Director, School Planning and Placement