No more mid-year exams for primary, secondary schools

Mid-year examinations for all those in primary and secondary schools will be scrapped by next year to encourage students to focus on the process of learning.

Such exams were removed for several levels earlier, and that had made a positive impact, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing told Parliament yesterday.

"Schools and teachers can better pace and deepen students' learning," he said.

In the past three years, schools had already removed mid-year exams for some levels, such as Primary 5 and Secondary 1, to help students discover the joy of learning, he added.

In the debate on his ministry's budget, Mr Chan said that students will also have greater flexibility in subject choices and school admissions, and working adults will be given more avenues to learn throughout their lives.

The Education Ministry (MOE) will intensify efforts in continual learning, he added.

Mr Chan was responding to several MPs such as Ms Denise Phua (Jalan Besar GRC), who had asked what more can be done for Singapore's education system to remain relevant.

Mr Chan said that the ministry will expand full subject-based banding, whereby students take subjects at different levels based on their strengths, in the lead-up to the complete dismantling of the streaming system in 2024.

As part of the move, from 2024, three secondary schools - Crescent Girls', Tanjong Katong Girls' and Tanjong Katong Secondary - that currently offer only the more demanding Express course, will take in students of varying academic strengths.

They will each have two classes of students mainly taking G2 subjects. These students may take subjects at the more challenging G3 level if they qualify.

By next year, about 90 schools - more than two-thirds of secondary schools - would have implemented full subject-based banding, up from 59 currently.

Students could also opt to take a third language in smaller modules.

Meanwhile, more spots in junior colleges (JCs) will be made available through the direct school admission (DSA) exercise from this year for students with talents not captured by their grades.

The number of DSA places for non-Integrated Programme students will go up from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the yearly cohorts at government and government-aided JCs. These include Anderson Serangoon JC, Eunoia JC and Victoria JC.

The MOE will also expand the scheme for Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) students to apply directly to a polytechnic for a foundation year instead of completing Secondary 5 and the O levels. It will relax some grade requirements for entry starting with the intake for 2024.

The ministry is looking at increasing the cohort participation rate of 50 per cent to enable more adults to pursue a university degree over the course of their lives.

"As we increasingly move towards interspersing working and learning throughout life, we should look beyond the proportion of each cohort that goes to university before starting work. We should focus instead on ensuring that Singaporeans can upskill continually, according to their needs and aspirations," said Mr Chan.

Institutes of higher learning (IHLs) must become institutes for continual learning, he said. Already, the number of adult learners they have trained has more than doubled from around 165,000 in 2018 to 345,000 in 2020, he added.

This number is expected to rise further, he said, and the IHLs need to review their programmes to cater to more diverse learners whose needs and experiences differ from younger students.