THE Education Ministry (MOE) will be holding a centralised admissions exercise for international students every year.

This is to simplify school applications for such students, who currently have to apply directly to the schools they are interested in.

Most apply to more than one school to increase their chance of admission and are often required to sit for different admission tests.

The first centralised exercise will be for new international students seeking admission to Singapore schools in 2009.

It will involve a centralised test tentatively scheduled to be held in September/October 2008.

Applicants who pass the test would be offered a place in a suitable school for the academic year starting in Jan 2009, based on their test performance and available school vacancies.

The exercise would be for new international students seeking admission into Primary 2-5 and Secondary 1-3 levels.

It would comprise English and Mathematics papers that would assess the applicants' English literacy, numeracy and reasoning abilities.

International students who wish to take part can refer to the following website for the syllabi of the various school levels: http://www.moe.gov.sg/cpdd/syllabuses.htm.

School admission
There is no change for international students seeking school admission in 2008. They can approach any school directly to be considered for admission into the 2008 academic year.

Further details of the new centralised admissions exercise will be available in June at http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/admissions/international-students/.