SINGAPORE: Students who are taking their GCE 'O'Levels this year can start planning for the next stage of their education with June and July set aside for admissions to Polytechnic and Junior College.
The first Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) Exercise starts on 11 July for admission into polytechnics in 2008 for students who want to confirm places in polytechnic courses before taking their GCE ‘O’ level examinations.
Students who are interested in certain polytechnic programmes and who have the aptitude for applied learning can apply under the DPA which also gives the polytechnics greater flexibility to select students based on their talent and not just exam results.
Students admitted through the DPA route will have to meet the admission criteria of not more than 26 points for their GCE ‘O’ level examinations in English Language, two subjects relevant to the polytechnic course applied for and two other subjects which could be elective subjects.
They must also meet the Minimum Entry Requirements (MER) for their respective
polytechnic courses.
The five polytechnics – Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic
Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic – will each admit some 100 students each, with a course-specific cap of 30% for each polytechnic course under the DPA.
This will allow other students applying through the GCE ‘O’ level route to also have access to popular polytechnic courses.
As for those seeking admission to Junior College at the pre-university level, the Direct School Admission Exercise for admission to JC1 and its
equivalent level (DSA-JC) will be held on 25 June.
Similar to last yearÂ’s exercise, government and government-aided junior
colleges (JCs) will admit up to 10% of their intake using school-based criteria.
The three independent institutions offering pre-university programmes will admit up to 20% of their intake using school-based criteria.
Each institution will admit students according to its own merit-based academic and/or non-academic criteria such as leadership, science, music, sports.
As the DSA-JC Exercise will be conducted before the annual Provisional
Admission Exercise (PAE), students who gain admission to JC during the initial round will not be able to take part in the later Provisional Admission Exercise (PAE) and Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE). - CNA/sf
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