22 May 2006

DIRECT SCHOOL ADMISSION EXERCISE 2006 FOR JC1 AND EQUIVALENT LEVEL

1. The Direct School Admission Exercise (DSA) aims to promote holistic education by giving participating schools greater flexibility in selecting students while holding to the key principles of transparency and meritocracy. For students, the DSA provides them the opportunity to demonstrate a more diverse range of student achievements and talents in seeking admission at the pre-university level. This year, Government and Government-aided junior colleges (JCs)¹ and the three independent institutions offering pre-university programmes² will continue to admit a percentage of their students under the Direct School Admission Exercise (DSA-JC) 2006.

Direct School Admission for JC 1 or Equivalent Level³

2. Similar to last year’s exercise, Government and Government-aided junior colleges (JCs) will be admitting up to 10% of their 2007 JC1 intake using school-based criteria under the DSA-JC Exercise. The 3 independent institutions offering pre-university programmes will have the flexibility to admit up to 20% of their intake using school-based criteria.

Student Selection

3. Each institution will admit students according to its own merit-based admission criteria (academic and/or non-academic criteria), based on the student personal qualities and the areas of focus (such as leadership, science, music, sports) that the school would like to emphasise. Information on the schools participating in DSA-JC Exercise, their selection criteria and their application and selection processes can be found on their respective websites. Annex A lists the participating institutions’ website URLs.
4. The DSA-JC Exercise will be conducted prior to the annual Provisional Admission Exercise (PAE). Students admitted via the DSA-JC Exercise will have to meet the criteria for admission to a JC. They will not take part in the Provisional Admission Exercise (PAE) and Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE). The eligibility criteria for admission to JC are attached in Annex B.

DSA-JC Exercise

5. The exercise will be conducted in 2 phases as follows:

Period	Phase 14 Process (All JCs)	Phase 2 Process (All JCs except the 6 stated in Footnote 4)
26 Jun 06 to 25 Jul 06	Offer Stage JCs may shortlist and make Confirmed Offers to selected students.
26 Jul 06 to 28 Jul 06	Acceptance Stage A student may accept only one of his Confirmed Offers by submitting his acceptance form to the same institution.  He is guaranteed a place in the institution if he accepts the offer during this stage, as long as he is able to meet the eligibility criteria for JC admission.
31 Jul 06 to 2 Aug 06	Cooling-Off Stage (31 Jul - 2 Aug) Students may cancel their Phase 1 acceptances during this stage, if they wish to accept a Phase 2 offer.	Offer Stage (31 Jul – 8 Aug) JCs may shortlist and make Confirmed Offers to selected students.
31 Jul 06 to 8 Aug 06
11 Aug 06 to 15 Aug 06		Acceptance Stage A student may accept only one of his Confirmed Offers by submitting his acceptance form to the same institution.  He is guaranteed a place in the institution if he accepts the offer during this stage, as long as he is able to meet the eligibility criteria for JC admission.

6. Please refer to Annexes C and D for the details on the exercise and flowchart of the processes respectively.

For Further Information

7. Students who are interested in participating in the DSA-JC Exercise should approach any of the participating institutions or visit their websites for more details regarding the selection exercises.
8. Students/Parents can also call MOE Customer Service Centre at 6872 2220 for further clarifications or refer to the MOE website at for more information regarding the DSA-JC Exercise.

Background

9. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has been giving schools, polytechnics and universities greater flexibility in their admission of students to allow a more diverse range of student achievements and talents to be recognised.
10. Since 2004, MOE has introduced a phased plan to provide greater flexibility in the secondary and junior college (JC) school admission system. The plan includes:
    1. allowing schools with the Integrated Programme (IP) full discretion in admissions;
    2. enhancing the autonomy of Autonomous Schools (AS) and Independent Schools (IS) by:
       1. increasing their level of discretionary places to 10% and 20% respectively, and
       2. allowing them to adopt their own merit-based admission criteria for these places;
    3. extending discretion on admissions to mainstream secondary schools that are able to develop strong niche programmes;
    4. giving discretion on admissions to all JCs.
11. This has been accompanied by increasing the flexibility of the admission system for the five polytechnics, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

1. Anderson Junior College, Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Catholic Junior College, Innova Junior College, Jurong Junior College, Meridian Junior College, Nanyang Junior College, National Junior College, Pioneer Junior College, Serangoon Junior College, St Andrew’s Junior College, Tampines Junior College, Temasek Junior College, Victoria Junior College and Yishun Junior College.
2. Anglo Chinese School (Independent), Hwa Chong Institution, and Raffles Junior College.
3. ACS (Independent) is offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). Please refer to the ACS website for more details.
4. The following 6 Institutions have opted to only participate in Phase 1 of the DSA-JC Exercise:
   1. Anglo Chinese School (Independent)
   2. Hwa Chong Institution
   3. National Junior College
   4. Raffles Junior College
   5. Temasek Junior College
   6. Victoria Junior College