The various 10-year series are currently unavailable on the market as they have been hit with copyright issues.

In a press statement released in March 2009, the Ministry of Education said: “The Cambridge International Examinations and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (Seab) are in discussion to resolve some copyright issues of third-party materials used in the examination papers … … As such, publishing firms have been told to hold off the publishing of past-year examination papers in the interim.”

Mr Kelvin Yoo, CEO of Singapore Asian Publications, said: “This problem is only happening this year. We’re just waiting for the tender date to be out … … For the last two years, about six publishers were given the publishing rights. We would usually know the tender date by November and the results by December. But this time, we haven’t heard anything from MOE yet.”

Some parents said that without the series, their children will have less practice before their exams.

Madam Goh Lee Kim, 48, told the New Paper: “I’m not happy that this is happening. Students in secondary schools and JCs need to look at past years’ papers to have an idea of what to expect when they sit for their O or A levels … … It will be a big disadvantage, though they may get papers from other schools. The Ten-Year Series set the standard for what students can expect in their forthcoming papers.” Madam Goh’s son is studying in Yuhua Secondary School.

The MOE said students would not be handicapped. It said: “Seab would like to assure students that they still have access to past-year papers for reference … … School candidates can approach their schools while private candidates can approach MOE’s customer service centre for assistance.”