23 April 2017
To adjust for the pending merger of four pairs of junior colleges, some JCs including Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Institution will take in more students next year (2018).
This is done to ensure that there are sufficient places for students in next year’s junior college cohort, since four of the JCs involved in the pending mergers will not be taking in new students.
Some of the more popular JCs may have to expand their intake by as much as 10 percent.
Each junior college needs to achieve a critical mass of students in order to enjoy economies of scales in the process of offering a broad range of subject combinations and co-curricular programmes.
The JCs picked for merger are either most affected by falling enrolments, or are easy to access due to their present location. A good spread of JCs across the island is also needed.