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| From January 2006, the junior college (JCs) and centralised institute (CI) will implement a single admission
exercise in March instead of two student intakes, as is the current practice. The JC and CI academic calendars
will be revised to accommodate this change. |
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THIS CHANGE was announced by Acting Minister
for Education, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, on 20 February, at
the official opening of Pioneer Junior College. It was one of
the recommendations from the JC/Upper Secondary Education Review,
and arose from requests by principals and teachers to remove
the “churning” of students.
Under the revised calendars, first-year JC and CI students will
start school by mid-March, after the earlier release of the
O-level results. There will be three terms in the first year,
instead of four. However, the number of curriculum weeks and
school holidays remains unchanged.
In addition, the start of the A-level examinations and the corresponding
release of the results will be shifted to two weeks later than
the current calendar. The polytechnics and Institute of Technical
Education (ITE) will also revise their academic calendars over
the next three years to gradually advance the start of their
academic terms.
The polytechnics will, over the next three years, shift their
start dates gradually forward, from early July to mid-April.
ITE, in tandem, will advance the start of its academic term
for its O-level intake. By academic year 2006, the new academic
calendars for the polytechnics and ITE will be fully in place.
For JC and CI principals and teachers,
this is a welcome change as it will reduce
the amount of re-teaching of subjects and
re-orientation of students due to the high student turnover
experienced by some colleges after the first three months. This
will also help students to acquire a stronger sense of affiliation to
the college. The JCs and CI will have some flexibility to adapt the
revised calendars to suit their specific needs.
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