22 Jan 2016

Junior Colleges have been given clear instructions not to accept transfer requests from students who fail to meet their minimum cut-off points.

In the past, JCs which still had vacancies after the initial posting exercise had the discretion to take in students who appealed for a place despite not meeting the cut-off.

However, the latest directive from the Ministry of Education (MOE) forbids this practice.

This tightening is meant to reduce the churn of students between schools after the posting exercise, and to honour the principles of academic merit and fairness.

The DSA, or direct school admissions, route already lets schools take in students based not just on academic ability but also other talents such as sports and the arts, so there is already enough scope to consider abilities other than academic achievement.