SINGAPORE: The results of the GCE A-Level examinations will be released next Friday (Feb 22), the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Friday.

Students may collect their results from their schools from 2.30pm on that day, while private candidates will be notified of their results by post.



The ministry also announced on Friday that A-Level graduates who choose to further their studies at polytechnics can now skip the first semester for more than 100 courses.

Currently, most A-Level graduates apply for and enrol in a polytechnic only one year after getting their results. This is because most polytechnic admissions exercises would have closed by the time the A-Level results are announced.

From Academic Year 2019, eligible A-Level graduates can be admitted directly to Year 1 Semester 2 each October for 110 polytechnic courses, up from the current nine. This will reduce their polytechnic course from three years to two-and-a-half years.



The 110 courses make up about half the diploma courses offered by the five polytechnics, and span several course clusters.



“A-Level graduates who are not enlisting in National Service will be able to enter the polytechnics in the same year that they receive their A-Level results. As a result, this group will be able to graduate one year earlier,” MOE said.

Source: Ministry of Education

Interested A-Level graduates will be able to apply to the polytechnics directly for these 110 courses in mid-August, for matriculation at the start of AY2019 Semester 2 in October this year.

More details will be available on the respective polytechnics’ websites by March 2019.

200 A-LEVEL GRADUATES ENROL IN POLYTECHNICS ANNUALLY

Places for A-Level graduates will be separately catered for, and there will be no impact on the number of places for O-Level graduates or ITE graduates, MOE said.

"The number of places for A-Level graduates will depend on the demand from and quality of applicants, and hence will vary from year to year," it said.



According to the ministry, about 200 A-Level graduates are admitted each year to the five local polytechnics – Nanyang, Ngee Ann, Republic, Singapore and Temasek.

"These are students who are keen to pursue an applied pathway at the polytechnics, that matches their area of interest or aptitude," it said, adding that the number includes both A-Level graduates who have applied and those who did not apply to the local universities.



Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said he hopes the changes will encourage more A-Level graduates to consider enrolling in polytechnics.

"Every year, some students who receive their A-Level results wonder about their options if they do not enrol in one of the Autonomous Universities," he wrote in a Facebook post.

"We hope that these changes will encourage more A-Level graduates who are thinking about pursuing their studies through an applied pathway to also consider the polytechnic option."

For most polytechnic courses, A-Level graduates would need passes in two relevant H2 subjects to receive module exemptions. These requirements may differ for specific courses.



Courses which offer module exemption have "sufficient commonalities" between the A-Level and polytechnic curriculums, MOE said. The exemptions are mostly for polytechnic foundational modules, and students would have covered similar curriculum in preparing for the A-Levels.

For example, A-Level graduates in Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Diploma in Information Technology may be exempted from the modules on Computing Mathematics and Programming 1 if they have passed H2 Computing or Computing Science, and H2 Mathematics.



Similarly, A-Level graduates in Temasek Polytechnic’s Common Engineering Programme may be exempted from the modules on Engineering Mathematics 1, Engineering Physics, Digital Fundamentals 1 and Circuit Analysis if they have passed H2 Mathematics and H2 Physics.

