SINGAPORE - Institutes of higher learning should move away from what is rigidly thought of as term time and break time, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on Wednesday.
A critical part of learning at that stage is internships, and a fixed academic calendar may not necessarily be the best way to fit internship opportunities into the working environment required by participating companies, he added.
"Companies would like to have interns according to their business needs, rather than just academic calendars," he told Parliament. "So we need to take into account all these differing needs."
Responding to a question by Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah (Jalan Besar GRC) on whether the Ministry of Education can align the semester breaks of polytechnics with the school holidays of primary and secondary schools, Mr Chan said there are currently no plans to do so.
The minister said that the academic calendars of institutes of higher learning are planned to support students' learning experiences, which include ensuring sufficient time for the curriculum to be taught and for student life during term time.
Dr Wan Rizal asked if the ministry would consider removing mid-semester assessments in December for those in the Pre-Employment Training programme and Continuing Education and Training programme, so that participants do not have to sacrifice their December holidays.
He also asked if the ministry would consider blocking off the December holidays completely, so that both staff and students can use the year end to recuperate and spend time with their families.
Mr Chan replied that different parts of society and stages of education have their own requirements, and it is difficult to have one model that fits everything.
Besides companies wanting to take on interns based on their business needs, adult learners in continuing education and training programmes will also have different needs, as various courses would have different internship opportunities that have to be taken into account, he added.
"It would not be very possible, nor very wise, for us to work on the premise of one single consideration, and therefore try to align all our school calendars – from pre-school all the way to institutes of higher learning – according to only one consideration," he said.
