In keeping with its efforts to nurture a diversity of talent and broaden learning pathways, the Ministry of Education has announced initiatives to provide students with greater flexibility to take ownership of their education journey, even as it equips them with pedagogical skills that prepare them for the workplace of the future. Hence, changes are under way to reduce the stakes of the A-level examinations and free up space for students to explore their interests, as well as enable adults to pursue a degree at later stages in their lifelong learning journey.

From 2026, students from junior colleges (JCs) and the Millennia Institute (MI) will not need to count their fourth content-based subject in their university admissions, unless it improves their score. Mid-year exams will also be removed gradually for JC and MI students from 2024, in line with the scrapping of such exams at the primary and secondary levels by 2023. Another change will give students more opportunities to pursue their interests without having to worry about examination results: the subject Project Work will be removed from the calculation of their university admission score, starting with the JC1 intake in 2024. They will be given a pass or fail instead of letter grades.