Channel NewsAsia - Thursday, March 20
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education (MOE) plans to hold a centralised admissions exercise annually for international students seeking admission to public schools in Singapore.
The MOE says this is to simplify school applications by international students.
Currently, international students seeking admission to public schools have to apply directly to the schools they are interested in.
Most apply to more than one school to increase their chances of admission and are often required to sit for different admission tests by the schools they are applying to.
The first centralised exercise will be for new international students seeking admission to Singapore schools in 2009, and will involve a centralised test that is tentatively scheduled to be held in September/October 2008.
The exercise will be for new international students seeking admission into Primary 2—5 and Secondary 1—3 levels.
Singapore public schools generally do not admit international students directly into Primary 6 and Secondary 4 as it would not be in the interest of international students to be admitted during these critical examination years.
The centralised test will comprise English and Mathematics papers that will assess the applicants’ English literacy, numeracy and reasoning abilities. — CNA/ir