SINGAPORE - More students who took the N-level exams this year qualified to go to Secondary 5.

Of the 11,528 students from the Normal (Academic) course who collected their results on Thursday (Dec 17), 74.9 per cent did well enough to be promoted to Secondary 5 and go on to take the O-level exams at the end of it.

This is a marginal increase from the 74.6 per cent in 2014.

Of those who took the exam from the N(A) stream, 99.5 per cent passed, slightly lower than last year's 99.7 per cent.

In the Normal (Technical) stream, 96.6 per cent of the 5,139 students who took the exams this year passed it. Last year's figure was 97.5 per cent.

They may apply to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), or laterally transfer to the Secondary 4 N(A) course if they obtained an A grade for English and mathematics, and at least a B grade for one other subject.

Switching to the N(A) course will give them the opportunity to go on to Secondary 5 to take the O-level exams.

N(A) students with a score of not more than 11 points can opt for one of about 1,200 places in the Polytechnic Foundation Programme (PFP). The scheme, offered at polytechnics, lets students skip the O levels and move on to a one-year preparatory course before entering a related diploma course.

N(A) students who have a score of not more than 19 points can also choose to go to a two-year Higher Nitec course at the ITE.

There are about 1,000 places in this scheme, which guarantees students who attain a qualifying grade point average in their ITE course a place in a matching polytechnic diploma course.