The Education Ministry will not be going ahead with plans for a single intake of students for junior colleges and centralised institutes from March next year.
Instead, it wants to implement a single intake system in the middle or end of January each year.
And it expects to introduce this within a few years following a review of the academic calendar of JCs and the centralised institutes.
Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam says by dropping next year's single March intake plan, teachers, students and parents will not have to undergo two major adjustments within a few years.
So the JCs and centralised institutes will continue with the current academic calendar and two intakes system for the time being.
The first intake is in November/December, based on the Provisional Pre-U One Admission Exercise, and the second is the Joint Admissions Exercise in February.
Schools and students say it's not a problem, even though they now have to take the preliminary exams much more seriously.
"For Dunman High School we're not really affected by the change because most of our students are motivated and self-disciplined anyway. And want to do well for the prelim-exams, whether they count towards JC admission or not," said Sng Chern Wei, Principal of Dunman High School.
Wong Kin Keong, a secondary four student said: "I don't think it's a problem because all this time, I take prelims as a gauge for my 'O' level. I'll still take prelims as seriously as before so that I can gauge how well I'll do for the 'O' levels."
"It doesn't really seem like much difference to me. The prelims are still important so you can't really ignore it," said another secondary four student Wong Xiao Tong.
They will also benefit from some improvements when they apply for JCs next year.
Students across institutes will study core topics in the first three months.
So even if 40% of the students move from one JC to another, they would have studied the same subject matter in the different institutes.
Cindia Lui, a first year student at Anderson Junior College said: "I'd prefer one intake in January as that will solve a lot of administrative problems for the school. We won't have so many students appealing as that in the first three months. It'll also solve a lot of problems for the teachers."
Committing to a single intake in January instead of March also mean the entire school system will be in sync with Primary and Secondary schools, an issue parents were concerned about.
Releasing the results in January may also benefit polytechnic students, as polytechnics will have the flexibility of bringing forward their calendar and make their holidays in sync with the rest of the schools.
- CNA