20 January 2019

Benecia Tang, a 16-year old student who recently collected her GCE O-Level results, started a project on community marketplace Carousell selling customisable keychains and badges while she was still in Secondary 3.

She has already secured a place in Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Business through the Early Admissions Exercise, and her aim is to start a business before she graduates.

Ms Tang was formerly from Crescent Girls’ School, where she picked up a lot of business skills in her co-curricular activity, the Innovation and Enterprise Club.

She has a bigger goal — to eventually set up a social enterprise for students with learning difficulties. Benecia herself has dyslexia, as do her two younger sisters, who are now of ages 12 and 10.

“When I’m able to, I would like to level the playing ground for people like me and my sisters,” Benecia says.

19 January 2019

Employment prospects are improving for Singapore’s polytechnic graduates.

According to the latest graduate employment survey, last year, 89.5 per cent of fresh polytechnic graduates found permanent, freelance or part-time jobs last year within six months of graduation.

The proportion of graduates who were unemployed and still looking for a job fell from 9.7 per cent in 2017 to 8.2 per cent last year.

The median monthly salary for polytechnic graduates who landed full-time jobs also rose from $2,235 in 2017 to $2,350 last year.

The survey was conducted by the five Singapore polytechnics.

The survey polled 9,330 out of 12,443 fresh graduates from November to December last year.

19 January 2019

Cambridge Assessment is taking steps to tighten its processes in the delivery and transportation of examination scripts.

Its director of assessment Juliet Wilson said that they are reviewing procedures for examiners.

This could include reviewing where examiners are allowed to mark scripts.

Currently, most exam scripts are marked at home by examiners, who are not employees of Cambridge Assessment.

The exams board is also moving towards more on-screen or electronic marking.

Nearly 65 per cent of scripts across the GCE N, O and A levels were marked on-screen last year.

This year, almost all papers will be marked online.

17 January 2019

Nowadays, parents are also attending polytechnic and junior college open houses as well as career guidance talks alongside students.

Polytechnic officials said that in previous years, only students would turn up for these sessions. Ngee Ann Polytechnic, on the other hand, has held two forums specifically for parents.

Nanyang Polytechnic also that parents made up close to 30 per cent of those who attended open house and career talks.

Some parents say that they are taking leave from work to visit the polytechnics, as it was important for them to become involved.

Polytechnic officials have pointed out that navigating the education system has become more complicated as more choices open up for school leavers. But experts also warned parents against taking over the decision-making process.

17 January 2019

32 GCE O-level Additional Mathematics Paper 2 scripts from Singapore were lost by a Cambridge examiner when his bag was taken by a fellow train passenger. The examiner had breached security policy by leaving the scripts unattended.

A year ago, a parcel containing A-level Chemistry answer scripts from 238 Singapore students had been stolen in Britain.

The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board said the scripts in the latest case were from Nan Hua High School and Hong Kah Secondary School.

The affected students have been awarded final grades for Additional Mathematics based on their performance in Paper 1 and their cohort’s performance in both papers. To ensure consistency, their school preliminary exam results were also taken into account.

About 91 per cent of the affected candidates obtained at least a pass grade, with about 20 getting distinctions.

Students can opt to retake the paper on Feb 15. The better of their two grades – the awarded grade or the one from the second exam – will be counted.

14 January 2019

Last year, Singapore students did very well in the GCE O-Level examinations, with 84.8 per cent of the cohort attaining five or more passes.

Some 26,750 students who took the O-level exam last year. According to the Ministry of Education and Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, 96.4 per cent of students scored three or more passes.

An SEAB spokesman said that another 1,389 private candidates sat the O-level exams last year, of which 89.6 per cent passed and were awarded certificates.

Students who wish to apply for admission to junior colleges, Millennia Institute, polytechnics, and the Institute of Technical Education can apply via the Joint Admissions Exercise, which is open from 3pm on Monday to 4pm on Friday (Jan 18).

13 January 2019

Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon has said that there is plenty of scope to increase the proportion of Singaporeans with non-tertiary education such as secondary, diploma and professional qualifications.

This is necessary in order to strengthen Singapore’s workforce and enable Singaporeans to take on complex jobs and leverage on new technologies.

Singapore can professionalise rank-and-file jobs to strengthen and broaden the middle class.

As recently as 2000, 45 per cent of the resident workforce did not have a complete secondary school education. Today, that proportion has fallen below 30 per cent.

Policymakers must focus on increasing the education levels of non-tertiary educated groups.

12 January 2019

The Singapore University of Technology and Design has introduced a programme that will allow a select group of students to do research on top of their regular academic load, and upon graduation, proceed with graduate studies immediately.

The programme is called the SUTD Honours and Research Programme (Sharp), and is open to both engineering and architecture students. Qualifying students must have at least two H2 As in mathematics and a science subject in the A levels.

Each student will receive a $15,000 grant. A faculty member will also provide one-on-one research supervision and mentorship.

By the end of the three and a half year programme, students will need to have completed research projects and a research thesis.

Students in the programme will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in either engineering or science, and have the option of applying to take up a direct PhD in engineering or architecture, or a master’s in engineering research.