Admission Criteria for Specialised Independent Schools

Mr Speaker, the Singapore Sports School (SSP) was started as a four-year Secondary programme aimed at nurturing student athletes with the potential to compete at the national and international levels. With this aim in mind, the SSP caters to a range of academic abilities and provides a flexible curriculum which allows young athletes to follow a rigorous sports training programme. Hence, the SSP already admits students from all academic streams, if they meet the sporting criteria for the School and the academic performance for their stream.

The School of the Arts (SOTA) was set up as a six-year through-train programme to develop students who would go on to provide creative leadership in their chosen field and become champions of the arts, whatever their eventual profession. While SOTA students benefit from a rigorous six-year arts education, the curriculum is intended to provide them with a wide range of options for admission into tertiary institutions of higher learning, and not necessarily a professional arts pathway. To do this, SOTA prepares its students for the well-rounded and internationally-recognised International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP).

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The IBDP is rigorous, and students who pursue it must meet a minimum academic standard. Thus, while artistic potential is a key criterion for admission into SOTA, the applicant's academic ability is also part of the total assessment. To ensure that applicants can eventually meet the requirements of the IBDP, SOTA's academic cut-off is the Express stream. It would not be in the interests of the students if SOTA were to lower its criteria and accept students who later find it difficult to cope with the IBDP, particularly since these students do not take the "O" levels.

Furthermore, SOTA only commenced operations in 2008, and its first batch of students has yet to graduate. It would be in the interest of the school and its students to allow SOTA to consolidate its arts and academic programmes before making fundamental changes to its curriculum and admission criteria.

In the meantime, our mainstream schools with niche programmes in the arts offer many other opportunities for students of all academic abilities to develop their artistic talents.

I thank the Acting Minister for the reply. While I understand that SOTA is likely to cater to students to prepare them for the IBDP, would the Ministry consider introducing alternative qualifications, such as the Workplace Literacy and Numeracy (WPLN) qualification, so that students who do not eventually qualify for the IBDP can have an alternative pathway to move on to the ITE thereafter?

Mr Speaker, as I have explained earlier, SOTA has just started its programmes in 2008. Its first batch of students has yet to graduate. I understand what the Member is asking – whether we can build alternative pathways within SOTA for students. In principle, the answer is "yes", but let us allow for SOTA to consolidate its programmes as it has just started. Also, as I have mentioned earlier, there are other pathways in mainstream schools as well, where students can develop their interest and potential in the arts. There are Arts Elective Programmes and Enhanced Arts and Music Elective Programmes offered in mainstream schools, too. Within SOTA, we will continue to improve but let us consolidate with what we have at the moment.

I would like to ask Acting Minister this: the Singapore Sports School has been in operation for many years. Besides IB, can the Sports School offer some alternative programmes, like diplomas, which are more flexible for our players?

The Singapore Sports School has, indeed, been in operation for some time. As I mentioned earlier, they offer students different streams towards "O" levels: Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical. They are now looking at the IB programme, which is a diploma-level programme. So, they are also looking at expanding their programmes and offerings to students. If there are suggestions for which we can make these programmes more flexible for the athletes, we can talk to the Sports School and we would be happy to discuss what other ideas we can pursue and how we can make these programmes more flexible. The overall intent of the Sports School is, indeed, to have a programme that would cater to the athletes of different interests. They already have these options at the Secondary level, and they are pursuing it to the diploma level. In fact, they are also talking to Institutions of Higher Learning, like Republic Polytechnic and the Universities, to make sure that there is continuation from the Sports School to these Institutions of Higher Learning. I recognise that some of these linkages and pathways can be improved, and this is a continuing process which we will work on.

Sir, the Acting Minister mentioned about the possible pathway in the niche Secondary schools. May we know the exact amount of resources that are given to the specialised schools, that is, in SOTA and the Sports School, as compared to the niche Secondary schools? Is the amount equivalent or a large difference?

I do not have the specific figures with me. I am not able to give the Member a direct answer now. I would say that, yes, the specialised institutions do cost more. At the same time, we do provide additional resources for students pursuing these different pathways and their interests, whether it is in the arts, sports or music, in the mainstream schools. I do not have the figures for a direct comparison. If the Member would file a separate Parliamentary Question (PQ), we would be happy to take it up then.

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