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Start of 2024 Direct School Admission Exercises & ITE and Polytechnic Early Admissions Exercise

Last Updated: 06 May 2024

News Press Releases

The Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise for admission to secondary schools and junior colleges (JCs) in 2025 will open for applications from 7 May 2024. Separately, applications for early admission to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics based on course-specific aptitude and interests will start from 21 May and 3 June 2024 respectively.

DSA Exercise

2. DSA provides a pathway for students to gain entry 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.

DSA Commitment

3. Students will be informed of the outcome of their DSA application by the respective schools. 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. Students participating in the DSA-Sec or DSA-JC Exercise are still required to take the PSLE or GCE O-Level examination respectively.

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 from1. 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 criteria2 for admission to JC.

5. 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. As students are expected to honour this commitment, 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. They will also not be allowed to transfer to another school after obtaining their PSLE or GCE O-Level results.

6. Students should carefully consider their DSA applications, based on their aptitudes and strengths, as well as the programmes available in different schools.

DSA-Sec Application

7. Students and parents may submit applications for DSA-Sec via the MOE DSA-Sec website3 from 7 May 2024, 11am to 3 June 2024, 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.

Infrastructural Updates for Maris Stella High School and Woodlands Ring Secondary School

Rebuilding of Maris Stella High School

9. MOE will rebuild Maris Stella High School (MSHS) to provide better facilities and enhance students' educational experience. From 2027 to 2029, the campuses of MSHS (Primary) and MSHS (Secondary) will be rebuilt at their permanent sites at 25 Mount Vernon Road. During the rebuilding process, MSHS (Primary) will hold at the former MacPherson Primary School site, while MSHS (Secondary) will hold at the former Bedok North Secondary School site. Please refer to Annex A for more information on MSHS' holding sites.

10. To better serve the needs of local residents, MSHS (Primary), with agreement from MSHS Ltd's Board of Directors and the Marist Brothers Provincial Council, will turn co-educational when it moves to its holding site in 2027. MSHS (Primary) will also look into increasing its Primary 1 intake in 2027. To accommodate this larger intake, MSHS (Primary) will also operate on a partial single-session at the holding site during the rebuilding of its permanent campus. When its permanent campus is ready, tentatively in 2030, MSHS (Primary) will revert to operating on a single-session basis. MSHS (Secondary) will remain as an all-boys school for now.

Rebuilding of Woodlands Ring Secondary School

11. To provide new facilities that will better support teaching and learning, Woodlands Ring Secondary School (WRSS) will undergo a full rebuilding of its campus instead of an upgrading4. There is no change to the plan for WRSS and Fuchun Secondary School (FCSS) to merge from January 2025.

12. Given this change, WRSS will now hold at the current FCSS site until the rebuilding works are completed in December 2028. Please refer to Annex B for more information on WRSS' holding site.

13. Students and parents who are considering applying to the above schools via DSA-Sec should take note of these changes, such as the addresses of the schools' holding sites, etc.

DSA-JC Application

14. Students applying for DSA-JC are encouraged to check the MOE DSA-JC website5 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 for different JCs.

Early Admissions Exercise (EAE)

15. EAE provides a pathway for final-year ITE (Nitec and Higher Nitec), N-Level and O-Level students, 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. Beyond academic grades, 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

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

17. Applications will open from 21 to 28 May 2024. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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.

21. Applications will open from 6 to 12 June 2024 for final-year ITE students, and from 20 to 26 June 2024 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.

22. 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.

23. 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

24. 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 SCs and Singapore Permanent Residents only.

25. 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.

26. Applications for working adults will open from 21 May to 28 May 2024 for ITE EAE and 3 June to 30 June 2024 for Polytechnic EAE. More information can be found at https://eae.polytechnic.edu.sg and https://www.ite.edu.sg/apply-eae.

Further Information

27. 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.


Footnotes

  1. 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/microsites/psle-fsbb/full-subject-based-banding/faq.html#posting-groups.

  2. Please refer to https://www.moe.gov.sg/jc-admission-eligibility for more information.

  3. The MOE DSA-Sec website can be accessed at: https://www.moe.gov.sg/dsa-sec.

  4. Woodlands Ring Secondary School's (WRSS) permanent site was scheduled to be upgraded under the Programme for Rebuilding and Improving Existing Schools (PRIME) from January 2025 to December 2026.

  5. The MOE DSA-JC website can be accessed at: https://www.moe.gov.sg/dsa-jc.