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Start of 2023 Direct School Admission Exercises and ITE and Polytechnic Early Admissions Exercise

Published Date: 03 May 2023 09:00 AM

News Press Releases

The Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise for admission to secondary schools and junior colleges (JCs) in 2024 will open for applications from 4 May 2023. Separately, applications for early admission to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics based on course-specific aptitude and interests will start from 24 May and 5 June 2023 respectively.

DSA Exercise

2. DSA provides a pathway for students to gain direct entry to secondary schools or JCs based on their diverse talents and potential, beyond their performance at the national examinations. Upon admission, students can develop these talents further in their secondary schools or JCs. There are 142 secondary schools and 20 JCs participating in DSA this year. Secondary schools / JCs can take up to 20% of their non-Integrated Programme S1 / JC1 intake via the DSA Exercise.

DSA Commitment

3. Students participating in the DSA-Sec or DSA-JC Exercise are still required to take the PSLE or GCE O-Level examination respectively. Students will be informed of the outcome of their DSA application. If an offer is made, they will need to decide whether to take up the offer by the indicated deadline, which will be before the release of the national examination results.

4. A student who takes up a DSA-Sec confirmed offer is guaranteed a place in that secondary school, provided that his/her PSLE result meets the minimum requirement for a Posting Group that the school admits students from . Students seeking entry to the Integrated Programme track must meet the minimum requirement for Posting Group 3. Similarly, for a student who takes up a DSA-JC offer, his/her GCE O-Level result must meet the eligibility criteria for admission to the JCs.

5. In accepting an offer of admission through the DSA-Sec or DSA-JC, students are expressing a commitment to study in that school to develop their talent in the chosen area, and should honour this commitment. Hence, students successfully admitted to a school via DSA-Sec or DSA-JC will not be eligible to participate in the S1 Posting Exercise or Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE). They will also not be allowed to transfer to another school after obtaining their PSLE or GCE O-Level results.

DSA-Sec Application

6. Students should carefully consider their DSA application, based on their aptitudes and strengths, the school's academic and non-academic requirements, as well as the programmes available to develop their talents.

7. Students and parents may submit applications for DSA-Sec via the MOE DSA-Sec website from 4 May 2023, 11am to 31 May 2023, 3pm. Applicants only need to fill in one online form to apply to multiple schools and talent areas. Each applicant can indicate up to three choices in the application form. For each choice, applicants will need to choose a secondary school and a talent area offered by that school. Applicants can indicate a different talent area for each of his/her three choices, and a maximum of two choices may be used for the same school.

8. Application through the portal is free-of-charge and requires one parent's Singpass to login, for authentication purposes. Parents who do not have Singpass access can approach their child's primary school for assistance.

DSA-JC Application

9. Students applying for DSA-JC are encouraged to check the MOE DSA-JC website for important dates and timelines, and to find out how the exercise will be conducted. Interested students should visit the respective JCs' websites as application periods, procedures and selection criteria may differ.

Further Information

10. Students interested in the DSA-Sec and DSA-JC should visit the websites of the participating DSA schools for more details. They are advised to do so before submitting their application form. Students can also access the MOE DSA-Sec and DSA-JC websites to find out more information about the exercises.

Early Admissions Exercise (EAE)

11. EAE provides a pathway for final-year ITE (Nitec and Higher Nitec), N-Level and O-Level students, as well as working adults (with more than two years of relevant work experience), to apply for and receive conditional offers for admission to ITE and the polytechnics. Beyond academic grades, EAE applicants are considered based on their aptitude and interest in a specific course. Applicants may be required to submit portfolios, undergo interviews and take aptitude tests as part of the selection process.

ITE EAE Application

12. Graduating N- and O-Level students can apply for early admission to Nitec and Higher Nitec courses respectively through the ITE EAE, based on their course-specific aptitudes and interest. Similarly, graduating Nitec students can apply for admission to Higher Nitec courses.

13. Applications will open from 24 to 30 May 2023. More information on the application procedure, entry requirements and important dates for the interviews, acceptance and confirmation of offer can be found at https://www.ite.edu.sg/apply-eae.

14. Successful applicants under the ITE EAE will be given conditional offers before receiving their final examination results. For their conditional offer to be confirmed, they must meet the Minimum Entry Requirements (MERs) of the offered course. The MERs for the respective Nitec and Higher Nitec courses can be found at https://www.ite.edu.sg/apply-eae.

15. Students are expected to commit to their chosen course under the ITE EAE. Students who accept a place via the ITE EAE will not be eligible to participate in all other ITE admission exercises.

Polytechnic EAE Application

Admission for Graduating O-Level and ITE students

16. Graduating O-Level, final-year ITE (Nitec and Higher Nitec) students and adults with two or more years of relevant work experience can apply for early admission into courses at the five polytechnics through the Polytechnic EAE, based on their course-specific aptitudes and interest, apart from academic grades.

17. Applications will open from 8 to 14 June 2023 for final-year ITE students, and from 22 to 28 June 2023 for O-Level students. More information on the application procedure, entry requirements and important dates for the interviews, acceptance and confirmation of offer can be found at https://eae.polytechnic.edu.sg.

18. Successful applicants under the Polytechnic EAE will be given conditional offers before receiving their final examination results. For the conditional offer to be confirmed, they must meet the MERs for the offered course. The MERs for the respective diploma courses can be found on the polytechnics' websites.

19. Students are expected to commit to their chosen polytechnic and course under the Polytechnic EAE. Students who accept an offer via the Polytechnic EAE and have their place confirmed will not be eligible to participate in all other polytechnic admission exercises. They will also not be able to transfer to another course within or between the polytechnics.

Admission for Working Adults

20. Working adults with at least two years of relevant work experience can apply to the polytechnics via the Polytechnic EAE. This applies to SCs and Singapore Permanent Residents only.

21. Interested working adults will need to submit employment records together with their application, as well as employer recommendations where available. The polytechnics will holistically assess applicants' work experience to determine the relevance of the competencies/skills gained over the course of their work to their course of interest. Applicants who are found suitable, but whose past academic grades do not meet the MERs, will be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they have acquired the pre-requisite competencies for their chosen course through supplementary assessments.

22. Applications for working adults will open from 5 June to 2 July 2023. More information can be found at https://eae.polytechnic.edu.sg.

Further Information

23. Students interested in the ITE EAE or Polytechnic EAE should visit the websites of the Institutes of Higher Learning for more details. They are advised to do so before the start of the respective exercises. More information on the ITE EAE and Polytechnic EAE is also available on https://www.moe.gov.sg/post-secondary/admissions/ite-eae and https://www.moe.gov.sg/post-secondary/admissions/poly-eae, respectively.