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Start of 2026 Direct School Admission Exercises & ITE and Polytechnic Early Admissions Exercise

Published on: 05 May 2026

NewsPress releases

The Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise for admission to secondary schools and junior colleges (JCs) in 2027 will open for application from Wednesday, 6 May 2026. Separately, applications for early admission to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics based on course-specific aptitude and interests will start from Wednesday, 20 May and Monday, 1 June 2026 respectively.

DSA Exercise

2. DSA provides a pathway for students to gain admission to secondary schools or JCs based on their interests, aptitude, and potential, beyond their performance at the national examinations. Upon admission, students can further develop their talent in their secondary schools or JCs. Secondary schools and JCs can take up to 20% of their non-Integrated Programme Secondary 1 (S1) / Junior College 1 intake via the DSA Exercise.

Crest Secondary School to participate in DSA-Sec Exercise

3. Crest Secondary School (CSS) will participate in the DSA-Sec exercise from 2026, offering football as a talent area. This will broaden the pathways available for students who demonstrate a keen passion and interest for football and possess kinaesthetic learning strengths to be admitted into CSS. CSS offers a specialised curriculum for students who prefer practice-oriented and hands-on learning and are eligible for the Posting Group 1 or Posting Group 1/2 option band. Students of CSS offer core academic subjects and ITE Skills Subjects and will graduate with the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) and ITE Skills Subject Certificate. Interested students and parents can visit CSS' website (www.crestsec.edu.sg) for more information.

DSA-Sec Application

4. Students and parents may submit applications for DSA-Sec via the MOE DSA-Sec website1 from Wednesday, 6 May 2026, 11am to Tuesday, 2 June 2026, 4.30pm. Applicants only need to fill in one application form online. 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.

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

DSA-JC Application

6. Students applying for DSA-JC are encouraged to check the MOE DSA-JC website2 for important dates and timelines, and to find out how the exercise will be conducted. Interested students may submit the applications directly to the JCs. They should visit the respective JCs' websites for details as application periods, procedures and selection criteria may differ for different JCs.

DSA Selection

7. Students applying for DSA will be considered by the respective schools that they have applied for. While schools have the autonomy to determine their own DSA selection and assessment criteria, they will adopt a holistic approach, by considering students' performance and potential in the talent area, as well as the students' personal qualities. Schools will also uphold the DSA selection principles of transparency, objectivity, talent-specificity, inclusiveness and student-centricity.

DSA Commitment

8. Students will be directly informed of the outcome of their DSA application by the respective schools. If a DSA offer is made, they have until the indicated deadline to decide whether to accept the offer, which will be before the release of the national examination results. Students participating in the DSA-Sec or DSA-JC Exercise are still required to take the PSLE or GCE O-Level examination respectively.

9. 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 requirement for a Posting Group that the school admits students from3. Students seeking entry to the Integrated Programme must meet the minimum requirement for Posting Group 3, while students seeking entry into CSS must be eligible for Posting Group 1 or Posting Group 1/2 option band. Similarly, for a student who takes up a DSA-JC offer, his/her GCE O-Level result must meet the eligibility criteria4 for admission to JC.

10. We encourage students to carefully consider if the DSA scheme is a suitable pathway based on a holistic assessment of his or her talents, as well as the school's programmes and its ability to develop his or her talents. In accepting an offer of admission through the DSA Exercise, students are expressing a commitment to study in that school and to develop their talent in their chosen area.

11. Hence, students who are 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. They will also not be allowed to transfer to another school after obtaining their PSLE or GCE O-Level results.

Early Admissions Exercise (EAE)

12. EAE provides a pathway for final-year ITE (Nitec and Higher Nitec), N-Level and O-Level students, including those from schools offering a specialised curriculum like Crest and Spectra Secondary Schools, as well as working adults (with at least two years of relevant work experience), to apply for and receive conditional offers for admission to ITE and the polytechnics. EAE applicants are considered based on their aptitude and interest in a specific course, as well as relevant work experience (in the case of working adult applicants). Applicants may be required to submit portfolios, undergo interviews and take aptitude tests as part of the selection process.

ITE EAE Application

13. Graduating N- and O-Level students, final-year ITE Nitec or Traineeship students, ITE Nitec or Traineeship graduates, and adults with two or more years of relevant work experience can apply for early admission to Higher Nitec courses through the ITE EAE, based on their course-specific aptitudes and interest.

14. Applications will open from Wednesday, 20 May to Tuesday, 26 May 2026. 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 course5.

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 the Joint Intake Exercise (JIE).

Polytechnic EAE Application

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.

17. Applications will open from Thursday, 11 June to Wednesday, 17 June 2026 for final-year ITE students, and from Thursday, 25 June to Wednesday, 1 July 2026 for O-Level students.6

18. Successful applicants under the Polytechnic EAE will be given conditional offers before receiving the 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 respective 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.

Polytechnic and ITE EAE Application for Working Adults

20. Working adults with at least two years of relevant work experience can apply to the polytechnics and ITE via the Polytechnic and ITE EAE respectively. This applies to Singapore Citizens and 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 and ITE will holistically assess applicants' work experience to determine the relevance of the competencies and 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 required competencies for their chosen course through supplementary assessments.

22. Applications for working adults will open from Wednesday, 20 May to Tuesday, 26 May 2026 for ITE EAE and Monday, 1 June to Sunday, 28 June 2026 for Polytechnic EAE.7

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, before the start of the respective exercises.8

Footnotes
  1. The MOE DSA-Sec website can be accessed at: https://www.moe.gov.sg/dsa-sec.
  2. The MOE DSA-JC website can be accessed at: https://www.moe.gov.sg/dsa-jc.
  3. With the implementation of Full Subject-Based Banding from the 2024 S1 cohort, MOE will post students to secondary school through three Posting Groups – Posting Group 1, 2, and 3. For more information on Posting Groups, please refer to https://www.moe.gov.sg/psle-fsbb/full-subject-based-banding/faq
  4. Please refer to https://www.moe.gov.sg/jc-admission-eligibility for more information.
  5. More information on the application procedure, entry requirements for the respective Higher Nitec courses, and important dates for the interviews, acceptance and confirmation of offer can be found at https://www.ite.edu.sg/intake-exercises/for-secondary-school-students-and-gce-holders (for secondary school students and GCE holders) or https://www.ite.edu.sg/intake-exercises/for-nitec-progression-to-higher-nitec (for Nitec or Traineeship students/graduates).
  6. 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.
  7. More information can be found at https://eae.polytechnic.edu.sg for Polytechnic EAE, and at https://www.ite.edu.sg/intake-exercises/for-secondary-school-students-and-gce-holders (for secondary school students and GCE holders) or https://www.ite.edu.sg/intake-exercises/for-nitec-progression-to-higher-nitec (for Nitec graduates) for ITE EAE.
  8. 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.