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Press Releases

May 20, 2009

Direct Admission Exercises for Junior College and Polytechnic to Commence in June-July 2009

Students can apply for direct admission to junior colleges (JC) and polytechnics through the Direct School Admission Exercise to JC (DSA-JC) and the Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) Exercise, commencing from 29 June 2009 and 8 July 2009 respectively. Successful applicants can confirm places in a JC or polytechnic prior to taking their GCE ‘O’ level examinations or equivalent assessments.

Direct Admission Exercises

The direct admission exercises give JCs and polytechnics greater flexibility in selecting students while holding to the key principles of transparency and meritocracy.

The DSA-JC Exercise provides students the opportunity to demonstrate a more diverse range of achievements and talents in seeking admission at the pre-university level.

The DPA Exercise allows students who are interested in, and who have the aptitude for applied learning, to seek prior admission to the polytechnics. Successful DPA applicants will be able to participate in the Polytechnic Preparatory Programme, conducted by the individual polytechnics from mid-Jan 2010 to Mar 2010. Under the programme, students will get to engage in activities such as industry visits, student camps and leadership development activities, which aim to broaden the students’ learning experiences, orientate them better to the polytechnic environment, and help prepare them for polytechnic courses. Students can also take polytechnic modules during the programme, which may allow them to pursue more advanced modules or cross-disciplinary modules during their polytechnic education. Closing date for applications for the DPA Exercise is 13 July 2009.

Student Selection

For the DSA-JC Exercise, each JC will admit students according to its own merit-based admission criteria (academic and/or non-academic criteria), based on the students’ personal qualities and the areas of focus (such as leadership, science, music, sports) that the JC would like to emphasise. Students admitted via the DSA-JC Exercise will have to meet the criteria for admission to a JC, for example their GCE ‘O’ Level or equivalent results must meet the prevailing JC admission eligibility criteria.

For the DPA Exercise, the polytechnics will take into account students’ abilities, talents and interests in the specific courses that they are applying for. For example, a student’s passion and talents in film and video production would be considered when he applies through the DPA for a polytechnic course in Media Studies. To ensure that students admitted through DPA will be able to cope with the rigours of a polytechnic education, applicants will also have to meet the prevailing polytechnic admission criteria, i.e.:

  • obtain a net ELR2B21 score of not more than 26 points for the GCE ‘O’ level examinations; and
  • meet the Minimum Entry Requirements (MER) for their respective polytechnic courses. (The MER for each polytechnic course can be found on the polytechnics’ websites.)

Similar to last year’s exercises, the percentage of students that JCs and polytechnics can admit via direct admission is as follows:

  • Government and Government-aided JCs2 can admit up to 10% of their 2010 JC1 intake using school-based criteria under the DSA-JC Exercise. The 3 independent institutions offering pre-university programmes can admit up to 20% of their intake using school-based criteria.
  • The five polytechnics - Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic - will each admit up to 2.5% of their Academic Year 2009 intake through the DPA Exercise. There will also be a course-specific cap of 30% for each polytechnic course under DPA. This is to ensure that students admitted through the GCE ‘O’ level route will continue to have access to popular polytechnic courses.

Similar to previous years, if an applicant accepts an offer through DSA-JC or DPA, and is successfully posted to the institution, he will not be able to take part in the Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) or Joint Polytechnic Special Admissions Exercise (JPSAE).

Further Information

Interested students should approach any of the participating institutions or visit their websites for more details regarding the selection exercises. Please refer to Annexes for the list of participating institutions and details of the exercises.

Alternatively, students can call MOE Customer Service Centre at 6872 2220 or refer to the following MOE websites for more information:

Annexes

Footnote

  1. ELR2B2 is used for admission into the Polytechnics. It refers to English Language, 2 relevant subjects for the polytechnic course applied for, and best 2 other subjects which could be elective subjects. ↵
  2. 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. Anglo Chinese School (Independent), Hwa Chong Institution, and Raffles Institution (Junior College. ↵