Expanding Pathways & Opportunities Across a Life Course: Increasing Porosity and Flexibility

Enhancing Porosity and Flexibility

Building on our Learn for Life movement, we will provide students with greater flexibility to take ownership of their education journey and allow them to customise their educational experiences based on their strengths and interests.

Progressive Implementation of Full Subject-Based Banding (Full SBB)

• (Update) The experience of students in secondary schools under Full SBB pilot has been promising. In the pilot schools, students in mixed form classes have established a wider network of friends across courses. Students were able to learn from a greater diversity of perspectives shared by their classmates. This helped them to gain broader perspectives and build stronger interpersonal skills, which will serve them well beyond school.
• As students interact and learn alongside peers with diverse strengths and interests, more of them have also reported having stronger self-belief. Such feelings of empowerment can give them confidence to pursue their own interests and develop their strengths. More students in mixed form classes have also been observed to have adopted a growth mindset – the belief that they can fully realise their potential with continuous learning and effort.
• (New) In light of the positive impact on students through the Full SBB pilot, MOE is extending Full SBB to three schools which currently only offer the Express course: Crescent Girls' School (CGS), Tanjong Katong Secondary School (TKSS) and Tanjong Katong Girls' School (TKGS).
  • From 2024, CGS, TKSS and TKGS will also admit Secondary One students taking mainly G2 subjects.
  • Students in these three schools will learn in mixed form classes and customise their learning by offering subjects at either G2 or G3.
  • This will also enable students of more diverse learning profiles to access these schools and benefit from their distinctive programmes.
• (Update) By 2023, about 90 schools (totalling more than two-thirds of secondary schools) would have implemented Full SBB, including 31 secondary schools which came aboard Full SBB this year. The rest of the secondary schools implementing Full SBB will come aboard in 2024.
• Phasing the rollout of Full SBB from 2020 to 2024 enables MOE HQ and schools to gain valuable insights into its implementation and will help us develop the relevant strategies and resources to ensure the smooth and successful implementation.

(Update) Greater flexibility with Full SBB

• Under Full SBB, we will be shifting away from a stream-based paradigm to increase flexibility and empower students to chart their own education journey.
• The Express, Normal (Academic) [N(A)] and Normal (Technical) [N(T)] courses will be removed from 2024.
• As there will no longer be N(T), N(A) and Express courses, subject levels will be known as G1, G2, G3 (G stands for General), according to different levels of learning demands. Students will have the flexibility to take subjects at different levels based on their subject-specific strengths and learning needs.
• At Secondary One, students will generally start with subjects (i.e., English Language, Mother Tongue Languages, Mathematics, Science, Humanities) at a subject level based on their PSLE Score. They may also, based on their PSLE performance in individual subjects, already offer English Language, Mother Tongue Languages, Mathematics, Science at a more demanding level from Secondary One. In addition, for students who meet the eligibility criteria, they could also opt to offer these subjects at a more demanding level during the year. At the start of Secondary Two, some students may opt to offer Humanities subjects at a more demanding level. Finally, there is flexibility for students to take subjects at a less demanding level based on their school's holistic assessment.
• At the upper secondary level, students will have further flexibility to offer elective subjects (e.g., Additional Mathematics, Art, Design & Technology) at subject levels suited to their interests and strengths.
• Students who would have been offered MTL 'B' today will have the option to offer G1 or G2 MTL. This is in line with the intent of Full SBB, which encourages students to better customise their learning according to their strengths.
  • G1 MTL focuses more on developing oral communication skills, while G2 MTL places greater emphasis on students' all-round development of language skills. Students can offer the level according to their mastery.
  • Even if students opt to offer G1 or G2 MTL at the start of secondary school, they can subsequently offer MTL at a more demanding level (i.e. G2 or G3 MTL) if they gain greater competence and confidence in the subject. Beyond the entry point at Secondary One, schools will also have the flexibility to allow students with difficulties coping with MTL to offer MTL at a less demanding level, if they assess that this is required for the student's learning needs. With the greater flexibility afforded by the MTL offerings at G1, 2, and 3, MTL 'B' will no longer be relevant, and will be discontinued in secondary schools from 2024.
  • The minimum MTL requirement for admission to junior college/Millennia Institute (JC/MI) are Grade D for students offering G1 MTL or Grade 5 for those offering G2 MTL.
  • MTL 'B' at A-level remains available in JC/MI. MTL 'B' at the pre-university level will remain manageable for G1 MTL learners.

(New) Expanding Post-Secondary Pathways under Full SBB with Changes to Polytechnic Foundation Programme (PFP)

• We will expand the PFP to allow a wider group of learner profiles to benefit from a practice-based preparatory pathway to a polytechnic education, while ensuring that they are able to cope with the curriculum.
• MOE will relax the minimum grade requirement of two 'Best' subjects from N(A)-Level Grade 3 to Grade 4 from the AY 2024 intake for PFP. We will retain the other entry requirements such as the ELMAB3 (English, Mathematics, Best 3 Subjects) raw aggregate score of 12 points or better, and the subject requirements for English Language, Mathematics and 'Relevant' subjects. Please see an illustration in Figure 1:
  
  

  Figure 1: Subject specific requirements for PFP
  N(A)-Level Subjects	Current Grade Requirement	New Grade Requirement
  English	2 or 3; depending on course	2 or 3; depending on course
  Mathematics	3	3
  Relevant Subject	3	3
  Two “Best” Subjects	3	4

  
  
• MOE is reviewing the admission pathways to various Post-Secondary Education Institutions. Changes to post-secondary admissions will be progressively introduced and fully implemented by AY2028 admissions, to better recognise students' different combinations of subjects and subject levels.

(New) Expanding Direct School Admission-Junior College (DSA-JC) Opportunities

• In line with MOE's efforts to broaden the definition of merit and emphasise holistic education, MOE will increase the Direct School Admission (DSA) places for Government and Government-aided (GGA) junior colleges (JCs) from 10% to 20% of their non-Integrated Programme JC1 intake from the 2022 DSA-JC exercise. More students can now seek admission to a JC based on their talents and achievements that may not be demonstrated at the O-Levels.
• The increase in DSA-JC places will create more opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds and with different strengths to benefit from the distinctive programmes in our JCs. It will also align the proportion of places for DSA admission in GGA JCs with that of Independent JCs.
• Our JCs will continue to build up a range of distinctive programmes to cater to our students' diverse talents and interests and support our students' development, regardless of whether the child enters the school via DSA or the Joint Admission Exercise.

Footnotes

1. GGA JCs include: Anderson Serangoon JC, Anglo-Chinese JC, Catholic JC, Eunoia JC, Jurong Pioneer JC, National JC, Nanyang JC, St Andrew’s JC, Tampines Meridian JC, Temasek JC, Victoria JC and Yishun Innova JC.