Ministry of Education Singapore: Media Centre

Parliamentary Replies - 11 Apr 2007

Male students repeating A levels

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mrs Jessie Phua, Nominated Member

Question

To ask the Minister for Education what are the provisions for male students who have been or are soon-to-be enlisted for National Service, to be able to repeat the “A” Level examinations.

Response

1. Currently, students who failed[1] the GCE A-level examinations for the first time can repeat their A-levels in a Junior College (JC), provided they are less than 22 years old on 1 Jan of the year of repeat. Male Singaporean students who repeat their A-levels in the JCs will be allowed to disrupt or defer from National Service (NS).

2. For students who have passed their A-level examinations, but want to re-take the examinations to improve their grades, they can do so as private candidates. For this group of students, they will generally not be able to disrupt or defer from NS. Based on past cases, some of these students would re-take their A-levels when they are doing their NS.

_____________________________

[1] For the 2006 ‘A’ level and prior cohorts, this refers to students who (a) failed GP or (b) passed GP but did not obtain 2 A-level and 1 other AO-level passes. For the 2007 ‘A’ level cohorts onwards, failure will be deemed as (a) failed GP/Knowledge & Inquiry (KI) or (b) passed GP/KI but did not obtain at least 3 H2 passes.