LATENT TALENT: Raffles Junior College students (from left) Teo Kok Leong, Nur Hijazi Jaffar and Nigel Sim, all 17, discovered their interest in biology after taking a course on tissue engineering at a polytechnic. The School of Science and Technology hopes to attract such students. -- ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM

Called the School of Science and Technology (SST), it aims to nurture students with inventive minds who can become future Sim Wong Hoos.

Mr Sim, often held up as a model entrepreneur, is the founder of digital entertainment product company Creative Technology.

The SST is the fourth specialised independent school here after the Singapore Sports School, NUS High School Of Mathematics and Science and the School of the Arts.

Like other secondary schools, the SST will offer a four-year programme leading to the O levels but with a focus on practice-oriented subjects, namely Design, Environmental Science and Technology, Biotechnology and Media Studies.

It will also teach academic subjects such as English and the humanities in a more hands-on fashion, by getting students to do projects, for example.

Each of its classes will have just 20 to 25 students, instead of the usual 30 to 40, to let students interact more closely with teachers.

It will be a 'Future School', meaning that it will tap widely into technology.

Announcing this in Parliament yesterday, Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that to keep pace with other leading cities, Singapore's schools must not only produce students who, on average, fare well against their peers from other countries.

They must also groom a small number of outstanding individuals, 'with the passion for what they do and the urge to keep going beyond the ordinary'.

While there is no need to 'shake up' the education system, Mr Tharman said there must be new schools that provide pathways for 'breakthroughs'. The specialised independent schools cater to less than 2 per cent of each cohort currently but can make an impact beyond their numbers, he said.

'So these are small pools of students, but varied in their talents and drawn from across the island. It all amounts to a broader meritocracy and a livelier one,' he said.

The SST will choose students based on their achievement or performance in camps, not their results in the Primary School Leaving Examination. These could be students who have done well in robotics contests, for example, said Mr Chua Chor Huat, principal designate of the new school.

It is different from NUS High, which offers a six-year integrated programme (IP) that lets students skip the O levels. While the IP schools take in the top 6 per cent of each cohort, the new school caters to university-bound students, or the top 30 per cent.

'If you're looking for an O-level curriculum, this school will be attractive because the small class size facilitates project-based learning,' said Mr Chua, now the head of Ngee Ann Secondary.

Students can choose the polytechnic or junior college route to university upon graduation, he added. As for concerns that students good in hands-on learning may not ace exams, Mr Chua said this actually helps students develop 'enduring understanding'.

'By immersing them in an experiential learning environment, they understand and apply better. This will show up in their results.'

The Ministry of Education will work with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to set up the school, whose location has yet to be decided. The school will also tie up with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and companies such as Creative Technology and IBM to offer students work attachment programmes.

Its teachers will be drawn from schools, polytechnics and industry. NTU president Su Guaning will chair its board of directors.

The school will take in 200 Secondary 1 students in 2010 and up to 50 Secondary 3 students a year from 2012.

Technical support manager William Kang, 46, who has twin sons in Rulang Primary and a daughter in Secondary 4, likes what he hears about the school so far.

'It's not just learning from books but there's a lot of research work involved. You don't restrict the children.'

hoaili@sph.com.sg

Education Ministry

FY08/09 budget: $8.04 billion
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