Offering Computing in Secondary Schools and Providing Institutional Support and Dedicated Curriculum and Pedagogical Resources

Mr Kenneth Tiong Boon Kiat asked the Minister for Education (a) whether Computing can be offered as a core subject in secondary schools; (b) how many secondary schools teach Computing in-house and how many via the centre-based programme; (c) what proportion of the cohort takes Computing; (d) whether Computing can be given its own Curriculum Planning and Development Division post and Master Teacher portfolio; and (e) whether Computing will become a subject before upper secondary.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) recognises the importance of developing digital and artificial intelligence (AI) literacies in students. Our approach is to equip all students with foundational digital and AI literacy through existing subjects and programmes, such as "Code for Fun", while providing opportunities for interested students to study Computing in greater depth.

At the lower secondary level, our students pick up computational thinking skills through the learning of mathematics. International benchmarking studies have found our students to be strong in computational thinking.

From the 2026 Secondary 3 cohort, upper secondary students can offer G1, G2 and G3 Computing as an elective subject based on their strengths and interests. MOE has no plans to introduce Computing as a standalone subject before upper secondary level.

Students from over 110 secondary schools offer G1, G2 or G3 Computing. These include students from over 40 schools who offer G3 Computing at four centres. Collectively, they make up about 13% of the Secondary 3 cohort.

There are dedicated Computing curriculum officers and a senior specialist in MOE, as well as Senior Teachers and Lead Teachers for Computing.