Debated in Parliament on 3 Mar 2014.
Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for Education, for Secondary schools that admit students under the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme based on the students' achievements in Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) or sports (a) whether there are clear policies on how schools will handle students who
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drop out of their designated CCA or sports after admission; and (b) over the past three years, how many students admitted under the DSA scheme do not enrol in or have dropped out of their designated DSA activities within two years of admission.
Madam, the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme was introduced in 2004 to give selected schools the flexibility and autonomy to recognise a more diverse range of student achievements and talents beyond performance at the national examinations. The intent is to promote holistic education by encouraging a broader definition of merit.
Generally, MOE expects that students admitted through DSA understand the commitment on their part to participate in the CCAs and activities related to the talent for which they were admitted. The intent is also for the DSA school to nurture these students further in their strengths. However, we also recognise that there might be a few cases where the DSA students may need to transfer out of their CCAs due to unforeseen reasons, for example, due to sports injury. In such cases, schools will work with the student on a change in CCA for the educational interests of the student.
Over the past three years and on average, of the students admitted through DSA, about 95% are still in a CCA related to their DSA talent two years after their admission.
Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I would just like to seek an additional clarification. Earlier, in one of the replies to my question prior to this, the Ministry had said that the policy for what to do with students will depend on a school-to-school basis. I would like to know if the Ministry has a general consistent policy across the board because we are going to have more and more schools going into the DSA system and more and more students coming through DSA. So, would it be better to have a clearer communication across all schools?
I also understand the explanation that, for example, if there is sports injury, then there would be a good reason for them to move to another activity. But what if the students have no good reasons and they just wish to drop the CCA? What would the Ministry advise schools to do in such circumstances?
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I thank the Member for the questions. The principle of honouring one's commitment applies to both school transfers as well as CCA transfers. What we want to do is to have students commit themselves to the school that they have applied for under DSA. Where students have lost interest, the schools will counsel them. But, essentially, schools will take it case by case. As I have said earlier, 95% of the students remain in the CCA and in the school, undertaking CCAs for which they had been admitted to the schools, after two years. This means the system works. We want the students to honour their commitment to the school, having been admitted based on the specific DSA talent.
Mdm Speaker, Mr Yee earlier referred to a previous reply given by MOE to one of his questions. I do not know whether he is referring to the previous parliamentary sitting. If he is, perhaps he could give a nod because I do recall he asked a supplementary question, to a main question which I answered, which was with regards to DSA about students who may have been admitted through sports and about whether their PSLE scores have had a certain gap between the cut-off point of that particular school.
Mr Yee raised this issue about CCAs as a supplementary question and I recall the answer that I gave was not that it differs from school to school but that it would be looked at on a case-by-case basis. And I believe that the answer that my colleague the Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Hawazi Daipi has just given corroborates this.
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