The Education System in Singapore

If you want to learn more about the Education System in Singapore, you have come to the right place!

The Education System in Singapore is very different from that in Canada.  Or anywhere in North America, for that matter.

Please leave questions/comments so that I can add to this info-sheet.

An Overview of the Education System in Singapore

Typical Education Route: 
Kindergarten: 2 years
Primary: 6 years
Secondary: 4-5 years. Students are streamed into Normal (5 years), Technical (5 years) and Express (4 years)
Pre-University/Junior College/Polytechnics: 2-3 years
Tertiary Education: 3-4 years. Only about 15% of the primary school cohort make it to University.

Traditionally, a child typically has a few major national milestones (or exams):

1. PSLE (Nation-wide exam taken in Primary 6 after the first 6 years of education)
2. O Levels (Nation-wide exam taken in Secondary 4, equivalent to Grade 10, after 4 years of secondary school education)
3. A Levels (Nation-wide exam taken in Year 2 of the Junior College, equivalent to Grade 12, after 2 years of Pre-University Education)

More recently, some schools have chosen to have an integrated programme where students do not sit for the O Level examinations, and instead have 6 years to work up to the A Level Examinations. Other schools, have decided to adopt the IB Programme, but this option is offered only in very few schools and mainly offered at schools that also offer the A Levels. There is currently only one national school that offers just the IB Programme: School of the Arts, Singapore.


Here is a visual representation of Singapore's education system:

Source: http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/

You can also visit the Ministry of Education website for more information as well as this wiki page.

Streaming and National Examinations

National Examinations are used as an indicator to gauge student (academic) performance throughout a child's education in Singapore. Most of the time, students are also streamed according to their National Examination results.

Streaming can happen quite early on - when Primary 6 students sit for the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination). It was recently announced that there will be changes made to the way students are currently ranked on their PSLE. Depending on their scores and residential area, students will get accepted into the various secondary schools in Singapore. The competition is fierce as parents and students scramble to get into the top secondary schools on the island.

Streaming also occurs at the secondary school level where students either complete their secondary school education in 4 or 5 years. They will also enter a different stream depending on whether they intend to sit for the O Level examinations after their secondary. This will largely depend on their PSLE scores, but also their performance during Secondary 1 and 2 (Gr 7 & 8).

Students typically take the Express stream, where they complete their secondary school education in 4 years, and sit for the National O Level Examinations. These examinations are very rigorous and also extremely high-stake. The examinations count for 100% of the grade they will obtain for their O Level certificate. Upon completion of the O Level Exams, students will enter Junior Colleges (JCs).

At the Junior College Level, students are also streamed into the Arts Faculty or the Science Faculty dpending on the number of Arts or Science subjects that the student enrols in.

Class Sizes

Class Sizes vary depending on the school and depending on the level of education (Primary, Secondary or JC). Typically, primary and secondary schools have class sizes of 40 students per teacher. While Junior Colleges have class sizes of 25-30.

Please leave questions/comments so that I can add to this info-sheet. 

Thank you for visiting!