Learning Together with Different Strengths and Needs

Refreshed Approach to Support Primary School Students with Academic Strengths and Talents

From 2027, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will implement a refreshed approach to support primary school students with academic strengths and talents, and discontinue the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) in its current form.

School-Based Provisions

2. MOE will support more students in accessing existing school-based provisions to develop them in their domains of strength. These provisions, which include in-curriculum extensions and after-school programmes (e.g. Excellence 2000 (E2K) Mathematics and Science), were introduced since 2007, and they are provided in every primary school today. Around 10% of the cohort will be able to benefit, up from around 7% today.

Centre-Based Advanced Modules

3. Students assessed to benefit from further stretch beyond school-based provisions can choose to attend weekly advanced modules after school at a nearby designated centre. These students will no longer need to transfer to one of the nine primary schools that currently host the GEP​.

4. The centre-based advanced modules are designed to stretch students intellectually and further cultivate their curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. They are different from the academic curriculum in schools, and are not designed to prepare students for examinations. Beyond nurturing cognitive strengths, these modules will also develop students' psychosocial skills, and build communities of like-minded peers.

5. Two types of advanced modules will be offered, taught by specially trained teachers who have experience teaching students with academic strengths and talents.

1. Modules in English, Mathematics, or Science, where students can delve deeper into their domains of strength. Students will attend a two-hour module per week during term time.
2. Interdisciplinary modules that offer opportunities for students to make connections across different subjects. These will be conducted during the school holidays.

6. As these modules cater to students with strengths in specific domains, more students will be able to take the modules, compared to the size of the current GEP cohort where students are selected based on strengths across multiple domains. Modules trialled last year were well-received, with students highly engaged and appropriately challenged.

7. 15 primary schools across Singapore will serve as designated centres to conduct the teaching and learning of the advanced modules. Students will attend the advanced modules at a designated centre near their own primary schools. These schools were chosen to ensure a good geographic spread and are accessible via public transport. MOE will review the list of designated centres at appropriate junctures to ensure responsiveness to developments, such as shifts in student demographics.

Identification Process

8. Primary 3 students this year will be the first batch of students to undergo the refreshed identification process in August 2026. This process involves a standardised one-stage identification exercise in Primary 3, replacing the previous two-stage screening and selection tests for the GEP. In addition, schools can also identify students using additional sources of school-based information (e.g. teacher observations, students' work). MOE will guide schools in identifying students.

9. Beyond the entry point at the start of Primary 4, students can be identified at the end of each semester in Primary 4 and 5 to join school-based provisions and/or centre-based advanced modules. Schools will provide parents and students with more details about the identification process later this year.

Implementation of New Post-Secondary Admissions Exercise in 2028

10. Under the current system, students participate in various post-secondary admission exercises based on their academic streams:

1. Secondary 4 Express or Secondary 5 Normal (Academic) students apply via Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE) for admission to junior colleges (JC), Millennia Institute (MI), Polytechnic diploma and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) 2-Year Higher Nitec courses or via Joint Intake Exercise (JIE) 'O' to ITE 3-Year Higher Nitec courses.
2. Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) students apply via Polytechnic Foundation Programme Admissions Exercise (PFPAE) to PFP courses, JIE 'H' to 2-Year Higher Nitec courses under the Direct-Entry-Scheme to Polytechnic Programme (DPP) and JIE 'N' to 3-Year Higher Nitec courses.
3. Secondary 4 Normal (Technical) students apply via JIE 'N' to 3-Year Higher Nitec courses and JIE 'E' to Enhanced Foundation Programme 4-Year Higher Nitec courses.

11. With the common Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examination from 2027, secondary students will receive their results at the same time and use their SEC results to apply for various post-secondary pathways under a common Post-Secondary Admissions Exercise (PSE) when they receive their results in January 2028.

12. The new PSE will replace the various separate admission exercises for admission to Post-Secondary Education Institutions (PSEIs) such as, JC, MI, Polytechnics and the ITE (2-Year and 3-Year Higher Nitec). It will enable students to participate in a streamlined admission exercise using their SEC results, which will be simpler and more convenient to use. All applicants can indicate up to 12 choices.

13. To encourage students to consider education institutions and courses more carefully based on their strengths and interests, choice order will be introduced as a posting tie-breaker when they have the same net aggregate scores, in the following order: citizenship, choice order, gross aggregate score, and computerised balloting.

14. The new PSE timeline starting from 2028 is as follows:

Mid-January	SEC results will be released for all students who have taken their SEC examination in the previous year, similar to the existing GCE O-Level results release timeline.
Mid-January	The PSE application portal, accessible by Singpass, opens over a 6-day application period. Students can submit up to 12 choices of eligible post-secondary courses, listed in order of preference.
By early February	Posting results will be released. Applicants posted to JC and MI will report to their posted institutions on the next school day.
April	Applicants posted to Polytechnic and ITE will report to their posted institutions.

15. Admissions that recognise students' diverse talent, achievement and interests, beyond academic grades will continue to be available for the SEC cohort – e.g. through Direct School Admission-JC (DSA-JC), Poly-Early Admissions Exercise (Poly-EAE), ITE-Early Admissions Exercise (ITE-EAE) for admission into JC, Polytechnic and ITE respectively. These are conducted before the SEC examinations.

16. The admission of students to educational institutions via exercises that cater for students with qualifications other than SEC will remain in place.

17. Eligible private candidates can also participate in PSE using their GCE, SEC or a combination of their GCE and SEC results.