Effectiveness of Direct School Admission Programme

Mr Alvin Yeo asked the Minister for Education whether the Direct School Admission (DSA) programme for Primary 6 and Secondary 4 students to be guaranteed a place in a Secondary school or Junior College respectively has achieved its purpose and whether the criteria for DSA will be reviewed.

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The DSA scheme, introduced in 2004, seeks to promote holistic education by recognising a more diverse range of student achievements, abilities and interests as criteria for school admission. Participating schools are given the flexibility to admit some students on the basis of their strengths, rather than rely solely on their performance at the national examinations.

Last year, under DSA, around 2,600 students, or about 6% of the student cohort, were admitted to Secondary schools, while 500 students or about 3% of the student cohort entered Junior Colleges. These students were admitted through a diverse range of talent areas which included sports, performing arts and visual arts, and specialised academic areas.

Overall, DSA has served to allow students to develop in their areas of strength, by broadening admission criteria beyond grades at national examinations. In general, schools can decide on their DSA admission criteria, as long as they are merit-based and transparent. The Primary 6 students must achieve PSLE results that would enable them to be eligible for admission to the course being offered by the DSA school, while the Secondary 4 students must meet the eligibility criteria for JC admission based on the GCE "O" level examination results. As with all of our policies, we continue to regularly review the DSA scheme and seek to improve upon it.

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