Enriching our Curriculum: Expanding Applied Learning Options

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7 March 2006

ENRICHING OUR CURRICULUM: EXPANDING APPLIED LEARNING OPTIONS

1. The Government has accepted the key recommendations proposed by the Polytechnic-School Review Committee (PSRC), chaired by Minister of State for Education & Manpower, Mr Gan Kim Yong. The PSRC has recommended expanding applied learning options in secondary schools. These will further enrich students’ learning experiences, and help them to discover their strengths and interests.

2. The key recommendations will involve the introduction of:

a. Advanced Elective Modules (AEMs): AEMs will be elective modules offered by some schools in collaboration with polytechnics. AEMs, which will be typically 40-hour courses in a variety of fields, will provide exposure to practice-oriented learning approaches adopted in the polytechnics. AEMs will be offered in 10 to 15 schools initially, from 2007.

b. New Applied Subjects at ‘O’ level: Some schools will jointly develop new ‘Applied Graded Subjects’ (AGS) with the polytechnics. AGS will be of comparable rigour to existing ‘O’ level subjects. They may be counted for polytechnic and junior college admissions, similar to existing applied options like Design and Technology, and will start off with 4 to 5 schools from 2008.

c. Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) Exercise: DPA will allow students who are intent on an applied education pathway to receive confirmed places in the polytechnics prior to taking their GCE ‘O’ level examinations. Similar to the Direct School Admission exercise for Junior Colleges, students will continue to take their ‘O’ level examinations after receiving confirmed places. For a start, DPA will cater for about 500 students in Admission Exercise 2007, for Academic Year 2008.

Read the full report of the Polytechnic School Review Committee Recommendations.

RATIONALE

3. The current education system is based on a 10-year broad-based holistic education at the primary and secondary levels. Specialisation takes place mainly at the post-secondary level in the JCs, Polytechnics and ITE. As a national curriculum, the current mix of subjects offered in secondary schools provides a good foundation in the fundamentals that prepare students for further education at the post-secondary level and beyond. We should retain the current core academic curriculum that students take, namely English Language, Mother Tongue Language, Mathematics, and at least one Science and one Humanities subject. They remain relevant for the future.

4. Our students have indicated a desire to be given more room for applied learning in secondary schools. There is scope for some schools to provide greater choice of applied offerings so as to encourage students to discover and develop a range of talents. These applied options will provide for greater diversity of curricula while ensuring that students continue to benefit from a broad-based education in secondary schools.

RECOMMENDATION ONE: ADVANCED ELECTIVE MODULES

5. Advanced Elective Modules (AEMs)¹: are elective courses in applied areas that will be developed by the polytechnics. AEMS will give students the opportunity to experience and benefit from practice-oriented learning in fields as diverse as digital media and entrepreneurship.

CHARACTERISTICS

• To be offered by some secondary schools in collaboration with Polytechnics.
• To be developed typically as 40-hour courses.
• To be taught by Polytechnic instructors and could be conducted either at schools or at polytechnics, depending on the facilities required.
• To be delivered in a similar approach to polytechnic courses, which involve a higher practical component as well as more group work. AEMs will also employ assessment approaches that are similar to those found in polytechnics, e.g. project work, group assignments and oral presentations.
• To ensure consistency in standards of AEMs offered by different institutions, the polytechnics will also form an Academic Panel to coordinate the development of AEMs.

RECOGNITION OF AEMS

• To be reflected in School Holistic Report Card.
• May be used for polytechnic admission under the Joint Polytechnic Special Admissions Exercise (JPSAE) and the Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) exercise.
• May be used for credit exemption in subjects that are relevant to the student’s subsequent course of study in the polytechnic.

EXAMPLES OF AEMS

• Creative Game Design
• Electronic Product Design
• Online Entrepreneurship
• Food Innovation

IMPLEMENTATION

• To be offered in 10 to 15 schools initially, from 2007

RECOMMENDATION TWO: NEW APPLIED SUBJECTS AT ‘O’ LEVEL

6. Applied Graded Subjects (AGS) will complement our existing school curriculum by giving students a greater choice of subjects. Currently, there is a limited selection of subjects which are applied in nature. Thus, while AEMs will expose students to applied learning, AGS will allow students the option of studying a field at greater depth.

CHARACTERISTICS

• To be developed by some secondary schools in collaboration with the polytechnics.
• To be developed as courses that are similar in rigour to GCE ‘O’ level subjects. These will be conducted during regular term and are at least 120 hours in duration.
• To be delivered in a similar approach to polytechnic courses which have a higher practical component. AGS will also employ assessment approaches that are similar to those found in polytechnics through, for instance, course work, project work, group assignments and oral presentations.

RECOGNITION OF AGS

• May be counted for polytechnic or JC admission.
• May be used to gain exemption from certain modules in polytechnics.

EXAMPLES OF AGS

• Creative 3D Animation
• Fundamentals of Electronics
• Cell and Molecular Biology

IMPLEMENTATION

• To be offered from 2008. This is because the AGS will undergo a more extensive development process to ensure comparability with the other O-level subjects. In the initial stage, we expect AGS to be offered in 4 to 5 secondary schools.

RECOMMENDATION THREE: DIRECT POLYTECHNIC ADMISSION EXERCISE

7. Apart from enriching the secondary school curriculum with AEMs and AGS, there is also merit in allowing students who are clearly intent on an applied education to confirm their place in a polytechnic before they take their O-levels.

8. With the DPA exercise, polytechnics will have greater flexibility to select students on criteria other than examination results, such as their interest and aptitude in applied subjects. The exercise will also free up time and space for students to benefit from special programmes in the polytechnics, before the start of the formal polytechnic calendar in April. This will better prepare them for polytechnic studies.

9. For a start, we target to have 500 students admitted under the DPA each year, or 100 per polytechnic. This will comprise about 2.5% of the polytechnics’ annual intake. Together with the Joint Polytechnic Special Admissions Exercise (JPSAE)², the polytechnics will be able to admit about 7.5% of their intake on discretionary grounds.

CHARACTERISTICS

• To be targeted at students who are intent on a polytechnic education.
• Similar to the Direct School Admissions for Junior Colleges, these students will still sit for the GCE ‘O’ level examinations. Confirmed places will be offered to students before they sit for their O-level examinations. Students admitted through the DPA are committed to their choices once they accept the offer, as is the case with other current direct admissions exercises. The polytechnics will ensure that students who are selected will be able to meet the rigours of a polytechnic education.
• A preparatory programme between January to March will be offered to students admitted under the DPA. Some of the modules covered during this preparatory programme will also be included in the mainstream polytechnic courses. Students can therefore use the freed-up time to take advanced polytechnic modules or courses in other areas.

SELECTION PROCESS

• Selection will be based on a basket of criteria which is fair, meritocratic and transparent. The polytechnics will take into account student abilities in special talents as well as their interests and passions.

IMPLEMENTATION

• To be conducted from 2007 together with the Direct School Admissions Exercise for Junior Colleges, for admission to the polytechnics in 2008.
• For an initial intake of about 500 students.

CONSULTATION PROCESS AND STUDY TRIPS

10. As part of the development phase, the committee consulted a wide range of representative stakeholders, including industry leaders, parents, students, polytechnic students, teachers, Heads of Department and Principals, to get their ideas and suggestions. The committee also drew insights from study trips to the United States and Europe.

BACKGROUND

11. At the 2005 MOE Work Plan Seminar, Minister for Education, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, announced that MOE was studying how we could create further diversity and richness in our secondary school landscape by expanding options for applied learning.

Footnotes

¹ AEMs differ from the Elective Modules (EMs) which have been introduced to Normal course students, in terms of the number of hours and depth of content. AEMs are typically 40-hour long courses, compared to the EMs which are typically about 20 to 30 hours long. AEMs will also go into greater depth in content areas compared to EMs. However, it will not be a pre-requisite for students to take EMs before being able to take the AEMs, as AEMs are mostly self-contained modules which do not require pre-requisite specialised domain knowledge.

² The Joint Polytechnic Special Admissions Exercise (JPSAE) has already taken effect in 2006 and allows the polytechnics to consider student candidates based on a broader measure of merits beyond performance in the GCE O-level results. It is offered after students receive their O-level results. Under the JPSAE, polytechnics will initially be able to admit up to 5 per cent of their annual intake of students based on their special talents and aptitude.