Students Admitted to Secondary Schools via Direct School Admission Scheme in 2013

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the number of students admitted to Secondary schools through the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme in 2013; and (b) if he will provide an update on the broadening of DSA to admit students based on qualities, such as character, leadership, personal or community work attributes.

There were about 2,600 Secondary One students in 2014 admitted through the 2013 Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme to their respective Secondary schools.

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The DSA scheme was introduced in 2004 to allow schools the flexibility to recognise a more diverse range of student achievements and talents, other than performance at the national examinations. The intent was to encourage students to pursue a holistic education and to introduce broader definitions of merit.

To further widen our definitions of merit, the DSA scheme will more explicitly take into account the personal qualities we wish to develop in our students as part of holistic education, such as resilience, leadership and care for others. These qualities, while difficult to quantify, are valuable.

Some of our schools already recognise these qualities in their DSA selection process. By ensuring that all schools recognise these qualities for a small handful of deserving students, these deserving students would have more opportunities to enter a Secondary school that has the relevant programmes that can build on their strengths. This will further develop them and eventually allow them to contribute more to the progress of Singapore and fellow Singaporeans.

MOE is currently finetuning the implementation details in collaboration with our school leaders to ensure that the intent of this enhancement can be achieved.