Secondary education in Singapore

The main objective of the programme is to preserve schools with strong cultural backgrounds and create bi-cultural environment, to allow capable students to master both these languages.

[7] Pupils entered the programme through a series of tests at Primary 3, which identified the top 1 per cent of the student population.

Some were not accustomed to the fast pace of study, which affected their performance in the core subjects, and chose not to continue the programme at secondary level.

By bypassing the GCE "O" level examinations, the students are supposedly given more time and flexibility to immerse themselves in a more broadly-based education.

As a result, schools offering IP allow their students to skip the "O" levels at Secondary 4 and go straight into junior colleges (JCs) in Year 5/JC1.

The Integrated Programme with the revised Singapore-Cambridge GCE "A" levels or the IB Diploma as a terminal qualification has become an increasingly popular alternative to the standard secondary education pathway.

This is because it is perceived as having moved away from the usually heavy emphasis on the sciences, a phenomenon resulting from the post-independence need for quick and basic technical and industrial education; to subjects in the arts and humanities.

The first batch of IP students sat for the revised GCE "A" Level or International Baccalaureate Diploma examinations in 2007.

Junior Colleges and the Millennia Institute accept students on merit, with a greater emphasis on academics than vocational-technical education.

Admission to a two-year pre-university course at Junior Colleges after graduating from secondary school is determined by a scoring system based on the 'O' Level subject grades.