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Source:
www.moe.gov.sg |
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Special and Express Courses at Secondary
Schools to Merge |
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Starting from the Secondary One students in
2008, the Special and Express Courses will be merged into the "Express
Course". |
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This is in recognition of the diminishing
differences between the Special and Express Courses, following the
relaxation of the eligibility criteria for students to offer Higher
Mother Tongue Language (HMTL). The merger will not affect the status of
Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools. |
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EVOLUTION OF SPECIAL COURSE |
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The Special Course was first introduced in
1979 to demarcate a distinct course taken by students: |
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a. Who were in the top 10 percent of the
PSLE cohort; and |
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b. Who took Higher Chinese Language (HCL) in
the SAP schools. |
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The Special Course has evolved and
since 1986, it no longer refers to the Course offered by students
in the SAP schools. |
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In 1986, the Special Course was
expanded to include students in the top 10 percent of the PSLE
cohort who offer HMTL (i.e. Higher Chinese, Higher Malay and
Higher Tamil) in secondary schools, regardless of whether they are
in SAP schools. |
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Today, 51% of Special Course students
are in SAP schools, while 49% are in non-SAP schools. |
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SPECIAL AND EXPRESS COURSES HAVE
BECOME MORE SIMILAR |
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In recent years, the differences
between the Special and Express Courses have become even smaller.
This is due to the progressive changes to the eligibility criteria
for students to offer HMTL at 'O' levels, to allow more students
to offer HMTL if they have the ability and interest to do so: |
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- Prior to 1995, only students in the
top 10 percent of the PSLE cohort could offer HMTL in secondary
schools. In 1995, students in the top 11-20 percent were allowed
to offer HMTL, if they obtained an A* in MTL or Distinction in
HMTL, and at least an A in English Language (EL). |
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- In 1999, the rule was further
reviewed to allow students in the top 30 percent of the PSLE
cohort to offer HMTL at secondary level, if they have an A* in MTL
or Distinction in HMTL, and at least an A in EL. |
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- From 2004, the requirement to have
at least an A in EL was removed, and schools were also given the
flexibility to allow students who do not meet the formal criteria
to offer HMTL, if the teachers assessed that they are able to do
HMTL without affecting their performance in other subjects. |
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Therefore, since 1995, an increasing
number of students from the Express Course have been offering HMTL.
The number of Secondary 1 Express Course students offering HMTL
has increased from 862 in 1995 to 4,466 in 2007. |
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For the 2007 Secondary 1 cohort, there
are 4,466 Express Course students and 4,410 Special Course
students offering HMTL. |
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In addition, some schools have placed
Special and Express Course students in the same classes. Thus,
there is now little distinction between Special and Express
students in secondary schools. |
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MERGER OF SPECIAL AND EXPRESS
COURSES |
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To better reflect the reality in
schools where there is no longer a significant distinction between
the Special and Express Courses, and to give schools greater
flexibility to organise their classes, MOE will merge the Special
and Express Courses into the "Express Course", starting from the
Secondary One students in 2008. |
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The merger of the two courses will not
change the status of SAP schools, which continue to play an
important role in preserving the best traditions of Chinese medium
schools and nurturing able students to study both Chinese and
English at the first language level. |
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There will be no change to the
existing provisions for SAP schools, which include allowing
students who are in the top 30 percent of the PSLE cohort and pass
HCL to be eligible for bonus points for admission to SAP schools. |
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Ministry of Education
3 AUGUST 2007 |
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Source:
www.moe.gov.sg Press Release 3
Aug 2007 |
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Important
Notice |
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Our FrontPage
Editions are a historical record of our Web site and reflect
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time. We do not and will not update the links and stories on
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FrontPage Edition: Sun 5 August 2007
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