SINGAPORE – Current Secondary 3 students will be the first to go through a simplified application exercise in early 2028, for admission into post-secondary institutions.
Instead of applying in separate exercises held on different dates, and navigating multiple online portals, students will use one common platform to submit up to 12 choices as part of the new Post-Secondary Admission Exercise.
This includes courses at junior colleges (JCs), Millennia Institute, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).
Currently, students navigate a timeline of examinations and admissions that stretches from September through January of the following year.
Speaking at the debate on the Education Ministry’s budget on March 3, Senior Minister of State for Education David Neo said needing to keep track of the different application processes and timelines may create more uncertainty for students regarding their posting choices.
With all pathways and courses available for selection on a single platform, students can select and rank their choices based on their preference, he added. They will no longer need to keep track of various admissions exercises.
This administrative shift follows the move away from placing students in the Express, Normal (Academic) (NA) and Normal (Technical) (NT) streams.
The 2024 Secondary 1 batch were the first to experience full subject-based banding that year. Instead of being sorted into academic streams, they take subjects at varying difficulty levels – G1, G2 or G3 – depending on their PSLE scores and strengths.
