Students who sat the A-level examinations last year have achieved the best passing rate since 2006, despite the difficult circumstances brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of the 11,646 candidates, 10,905 students, or 93.6 per cent, attained at least three H2 passes, with a pass in General Paper or Knowledge and Inquiry, said the Ministry of Education and the Singapore Examinations and Assessments Board in a joint press release yesterday.
The result was slightly better than the 93.4 per cent achieved by the 2019 cohort.
Similar to last year, students who returned to their schools yesterday to collect their results had to do so in their classrooms, instead of as a cohort in the school hall.
This was due to safe management measures.
Those who sat the exams last year also had to cope with the sudden shift from in-person teaching to home-based learning (HBL) as the pandemic forced schools to move lessons online.
"The sudden shift towards HBL was especially challenging for me. School routines and a structured environment were less accessible, so it required a lot of self-discipline on my end," said Mr Luqman Nurhakim Mohd Ramle, a former student at Jurong Pioneer Junior College.
The 19-year-old, who is now serving his national service with the Singapore Civil Defence Force, decided to switch from the science stream to the arts stream after being held back in year one of junior college.
"It was difficult to convince my parents that the decision was the right one, as I come from a family which is into the sciences, but after I made the switch, my results starting improving rapidly," said Mr Luqman, whose father and elder brother are engineers.
Reconsidering his subject choices allowed him to nurture his love for economics - he managed to switch from taking the subject at the H1 level to the more content-heavy H2 level.
"I love the subject because it allows me to understand things that I see happening around me, like income inequality, and think about possible solutions to them," said Mr Luqman, who hopes to go to the London School of Economics.
Schools congratulated their students on their achievements.
Raffles Institution said: "We would like to congratulate the class of 2020 for achieving a stellar set of results at the A-level examinations.
"The excellent results, achieved in the face of Covid-19 disruptions, are testament to the Rafflesian spirit of fortitude and resilience embodied by our students."
The school said that 98 per cent of its students achieved a pass.
Hwa Chong Institution also celebrated the efforts of its former students.
"Our students displayed the Hwa Chong spirit of resilience and tenacity and demonstrated commitment and dedication during an unprecedented time," the school said in a release yesterday.
"Despite the physical constraints posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, they continued to serve the community wholeheartedly, contributing to more than 100 service learning projects and benefiting more than 150 beneficiary organisations."
